Ukrainian Corruption Agencies Name Zelenskyy’s Former Chief of Staff as Graft Suspect

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was placed under suspicion in a major corruption investigation on May 11.

In an X post on Monday, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said it and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) had exposed an organized group that was laundering money through a 460-million-hryvnia ($10.5 million) luxury real estate project near the capital city of Kyiv.

It did not identify Yermak, but said one of those involved was a former head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Yermak’s attorney, Ihor Fomin, addressed the allegation in an interview with Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne and said it was groundless. He denied that his client was involved in any wrongdoing.

“As far as I’m concerned, this whole situation has been provoked by public pressure,” Fomin said. “In my entire career, I have never encountered such pressure, including pressure on law enforcement agencies, to have Mr. Yermak served with a notice of suspicion.”

Yermak, who was the country’s lead negotiator in talks with the United States, resigned in November amid a corruption scandal that engulfed Zelenskyy’s administration.

On Nov. 13, Ukraine announced an anti-corruption audit of all state-owned companies amid an investigation into an alleged graft scheme involving the nation’s primary nuclear energy producer Energoatom.

Yermak confirmed on Nov. 28 that his property was being searched, and said he was fully cooperating with the authorities.

There is no suggestion that Zelenskyy—who was an actor and comedian before he was elected president in 2019—is under any suspicion as part of the investigation.

A video released by NABU goes into detail about the allegations over a luxury real estate development called Dynasty, located in Kozyn, just south of Kyiv. Work on it began in June 2021.

“After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, construction of the Dynasty residences did not stop,” says the NABU official.

Prosecutors told a media briefing in Kyiv on May 11 that they had also questioned the former defense minister, Rustem Umerov, who is now secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

Official, Businessman ‘Implicated’

The prosecutors said former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov and Ukrainian businessman Tymur Mindich were both “implicated.”

It was not immediately clear whether Chernyshov or Mindich had legal representatives who could comment on their behalf.

The investigation also involves suspected corruption in the Ukrainian energy and defense industries, the prosecutors said.

Zelenskyy has not made a public comment, but his press officer, Dmytro Lytvyn, said, “The investigation is ongoing, it’s early to draw conclusions.”

Before his election, Zelenskyy played a schoolteacher in the popular Ukrainian television show “Servant of the People.” His character becomes the Ukrainian president after delivering a speech about government corruption that goes viral online.

Ukraine has a long history of corruption. In 2013, a senior police officer was jailed for life for the murder in September 2000 of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze—who was investigating high-level graft—on the orders of high-level politicians.

Corruption Obstacle to EU Membership

Endemic corruption is one of the biggest obstacles to Ukraine’s admission to the European Union. On Dec. 11, the EU and Kyiv announced a plan to tackle graft and bolster the country’s democratic institutions.

The proposal would strengthen the independence of NABU and SAPO and protect their jurisdiction “from circumvention and undue influence through clear delineation of investigative jurisdiction among pre-trial investigation bodies and robust rules on prevention and settlement of conflicts of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings.”

It also would extend the two agencies’ jurisdiction to “cover all high-risk positions.”

Zelenskyy’s five-year term as president was due to end in May 2024, but elections have been suspended since martial law was declared, after Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

Elections are forbidden under martial law in Ukraine, but Zelenskyy said in December that he was willing to try to change the law to allow wartime elections, even in a partly-occupied country.

“I’m ready for elections, and moreover, I ask … that the U.S. help me, maybe together with European colleagues, to ensure the security of an election,” Zelenskyy said on Dec. 9.

A 72-hour ceasefire in the conflict with Russia, which had been brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, ended on May 11, and fighting has resumed along the frontline.

In a May 8 post on Truth Social, Trump said, “Hopefully, [the ceasefire] is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War. Talks are continuing on ending this Major Conflict, the biggest since World War II, and we are getting closer and closer every day.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.