Zelensky's Top Aide Resigns Amid Widening Corruption Scandal

Source: New York Times

Zelensky’s Top Aide Resigns Amid Widening Corruption Scandal

Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff and top peace negotiator, became the highest-ranking casualty of an investigation into a vast kickback scheme.


Andriy Yermak, in Washington last year. He had been widely seen as the country’s second most powerful person. Eric Lee/The New York Times

By Kim Barker and Andrew E. Kramer
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

Nov. 28, 2025
Updated 1:48 p.m. ET

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday in the highest-level political realignment in Ukraine since Russia’s all-out invasion nearly four years ago.

The departure of Mr. Yermak, who had headed Ukraine’s negotiating team in peace talks with the Trump administration, put in doubt the future of the latest round of diplomatic efforts by the United States, Ukraine and European nations to end the war.

It also cost Mr. Zelensky a longtime close ally who had been a behind-the-scenes operator, a political enforcer and, as Ukraine’s fortunes in the war slumped, a lightning rod for criticism over much of what had gone wrong, including allegations of theft from state companies.

Mr. Yermak stepped down amid a spiraling, $100 million embezzlement scandal that has already led to the dismissal of two cabinet ministers and even threatened to topple Mr. Zelensky’s entire cabinet. (1)

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Adam Entous and Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting.

Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about the war in Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/kim-barker

Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/andrew-e-kramer

(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/world/europe/zelensky-corruption-investigation.html

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/world/europe/zelensky-yermak-resigns-ukraine-corruption-scandal.html