Corruption probe forces Zelenskyy to fire Yermak; Witkoff to meet Putin early next week

The coming repercussions from Yermak’s dismissal are hard to overestimate. Appointed Head of the President’s Office in 2020, he became a load-bearing pillar of Zelenskyy’s administration, even more so after martial law was instituted in early 2022. Yermak had unparalleled influence over Zelenskyy on all matters, ousting ministers who disagreed with him and installing loyalists across a wide range of government departments and state agencies.

More recently, Yermak was leading the tense, high-stakes negotiations with the United States on the U.S.-backed peace plan. He was scheduled to fly to Miami to continue the talks with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Nov. 29. After his resignation, the delegation will now be led by Rustem Umerov, former Defense Minister and current Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).

Witkoff will meet with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Moscow early next week, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Witkoff’s ostensible objective will be to convince the dictator to accept the peace plan after it was amended to be less explicitly favorable to Russia.