Corruption probe forces Zelenskyy to fire Yermak; Witkoff to meet Putin early next week
Andriy Yermak and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted the resignation of his most significant aide and confidant Andriy Yermak on Nov. 28, shortly after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) searched Yermak’s residence in Kyiv.
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.
The military war may be swinging in our favor, but the information war continues.
Just as an army needs soldiers, so does a free society need its journalists to ensure that people have access to honest, trustworthy voices to understand the world around them.
For the past five years, The New Voice of Ukraine has been working tirelessly to push back against Russian narratives and defend democracy. But we cannot do it alone.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for just $5 a month – your donation does directly to supporting journalists and ensuring that this front of the infowar says solid and defended.
Thank you.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
