Key officials advise Zelenskyy to dismiss head of his office Yermak – UP sources

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

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Mindichgate. What is happening in the government a week after the anti-corruption scandal? (English translation to follow shortly)

Details: Over the past week, Zelenskyy has held meetings with key members of his team to identify a decision that would stabilise the situation after the publication of the investigation into corruption in the energy sector.

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 those meetings, most of those who had been asked by the president offered different recommendations for resolving the crisis, but almost all of them, without coordinating with each other, advised replacing the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak."

Details: According to an Ukrainska Pravda source among senior members of the Servant of the People party, it is easier to count the MPs who are not calling for Yermak's dismissal: "There is no direct blackmail, of course, but if this doesn't happen, the faction will fall apart on its own."

Within the Servant of the People ranks, a new kind of the Coalition of the Willing has formed, threatening even to leave the faction if the head of the President's Office is not removed.

According to Ukrainska Pravda, the initiative comes from the Davyd Arakhamiia–Danylo Hetmantsev tandem, in alliance with the liberal wing of the party.

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