Key officials advise Zelenskyy to dismiss Head of President's Office Yermak – UP sources

Key government figures close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have been advising him to dismiss Andrii Yermak, Head of the President's Office, following the high-profile Operation Midas investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Mindichgate: one week on from the corruption scandal, what's going on in the government? (English translation to follow shortly)

Details: Over the past week, Zelenskyy has met with key members of his team to try to find a way of stabilising the situation after the investigation into corruption in the energy sector was made public.

Some of these meetings were publicly reported, including conversations with Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, Head of Defence Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov and others.

Quote: "According to people familiar with the conversations at these meetings, most of those consulted by the president suggested various ways out of the crisis, but almost all of them, independently of each other, advised him to replace the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak."

Details: A senior Servant of the People source told Ukrainska Pravda that it is easier to count the MPs who are not calling for Yermak's dismissal: "There's no direct blackmail, of course, but unless this happens, the faction will simply fall apart."

A sort of "coalition of the willing" has formed within the Servant of the People ranks who are threatening to leave unless Yermak is removed.

Ukrainska Pravda has learned that the initiative came from the Davyd Arakhamiia-Danylo Hetmantsev tandem, in alliance with the liberal wing of the party.

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