{"id":55187,"date":"2025-11-29T00:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T00:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55187\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T00:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T00:11:17","slug":"zelenskys-top-aide-andriy-yermak-resigns-after-raid-on-his-home-upending-ukraines-team-for-peace-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55187\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak resigns after raid on his home — upending Ukraine’s team for peace talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Ukraine\u2019s delegation negotiating for Kyiv on Ukraine\u2019s peace plan<\/a> resigned from office on Friday following a raid on his apartment<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a day before he was scheduled to meet with the US team leading talks to end Russia\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

Andriy Yermak, who served as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s<\/a> chief aide, submitted his resignation hours after Ukrainian\u2019s state corruption investigators searched his residence in the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cNABU and SAP raided my apartment around 6 a.m. and searched it. This happened after a meeting in Geneva and on the eve of a weekend meeting in the US,\u201d Yermak told The Post. \u201cAnd immediately after my statement that we would not give up our territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak in Kyiv on Jan. 22, 2024. REUTERS<\/p>\n

He did not mention his reason for resigning, however it came following weeks of domestic pressure following a corruption investigation into players on Zelensky\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cYermak resigned because he wanted to cut off speculations,\u201d Ukrainian Ambassador to the US exclusively Olga Stefanishya told The Post. \u201cSearches at his home were made, but no procedural actions followed afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Head of Presidential Office Andriy Yermak on March 26, 2025 in Paris. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s anti-graft watchdog spent 15 months digging into a brazen shakedown dubbed \u201cOperation Midas,\u201d uncovering a scheme that allegedly forced Energoatom contractors to cough up 10 to 15 percent kickbacks \u2014 or risk getting blacklisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Investigators say the crooks skimmed nearly $100 million off the top.<\/p>\n

Zelensky said Yermak\u2019s resignation allows Kyiv to keep the faith of the Ukrainian public as it continues a difficult phase of peace talks with the US to end the war with Russia.<\/p>\n

Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak in Kyiv on Jan. 22, 2024. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to Andriy that Ukraine\u2019s position on the path of negotiations was always presented as required: it was always a patriotic position,\u201d Zelensky said. \u201cBut I want there to be no rumors and speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 When all attention is focused on diplomacy and defense in a war, internal strength is required,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yermak on Thursday had told The Post he was headed to the US for further talks on the peace deal with American officials this weekend in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak in Spain on Nov. 18, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n

A delegation of Ukrainians is headed to the US to participate in the talks in his place,\u00a0senior Ukrainian officials told The Post. The talks will involve Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading the peace negotiations for Washington.<\/p>\n

Army Sec. Dan Driscoll is also headed to Ukraine on Saturday for continued talks with Kyiv on US peace plan efforts<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kushner and Witkoff are headed to Moscow to handle the Russian side of negotiations,\u00a0The Telegraph reported<\/a>\u00a0on Friday.<\/p>\n

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Zelensky<\/a>\u00a0has already shuffled his negotiating team tasked with working on the\u00a0peace plan<\/a>\u00a0with the US.<\/p>\n

Remaining on the team is Ukrainian\u00a0Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, who convinced Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff that Ukraine would capitulate to a heavily Russia-leaning 28-point peace plan that later proved unacceptable to Zelensky, senior US officials said.<\/p>\n

Umerov will be part of the team headed to Florida this weekend to meet again with Witkoff.<\/p>\n

Officers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) pass through a checkpoint in the government quarter in Kyiv on Nov. 28, 2025. Ukrainska Pravda\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Last time they met,\u00a0Umerov had added in a provision to that plan that would have absolved Ukraine of accountability for any possible corruption involving US aid, suggesting a point that would instead grant amnesty to both Ukraine and Russia for any acts during the war \u2014 to include heavily documented Russian war crimes.<\/p>\n

A senior US administration official last week told The Post it was \u201cfishy\u201d for Umerov to have suggested that provision.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou will see that point 26 gives amnesty to all parties, meaning both Russia and Ukraine. OK, that was not the idea of the United States; the Ukrainians inserted that language,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US had [that] \u2018Ukraine will conduct a full audit of all aid receipts and create a legal mechanism to recover any errors found and punish those who illegally profited from the war\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s something the American people want to see. That\u2019s also something the Russians do support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ukrainians rejected that, and they said, \u2018No, we\u2019d rather give amnesty to both sides of the war.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of his meeting with Witkoff, Umerov also\u00a0met with FBI Director Kash Patel ahead of the meeting with Witkoff, according to multiple US and Ukrainian officials. The Post has been unable to confirm the content of their discussion.<\/p>\n

The FBI declined to comment.\u00a0The White House did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Ukraine\u2019s delegation negotiating for Kyiv on Ukraine\u2019s peace plan resigned from office on Friday following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,18375,9046,9047,14123,1076],"class_list":["post-55187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-resignations","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-volodymyr-zelensky","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}