Yermak lashed out at Zelenskyy in half-hour tirade before stepping down – UP sources

Ukrainska Pravda, STANISLAV POHORILOV - 1 December, 09:55

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Andrii Yermak. Photo: Getty Images

Andrii Yermak, former Head of the President's Office, did not believe until the very last moment that he would be forced to resign. So when he was asked to write a letter of resignation, he lashed out at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an emotional outburst filled with reproaches and accusations.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Ali Baba and the Forty Statesmen: How Yermak lost his position as the president's right-hand man and avoided being served with a notice of suspicion

Details: The article states that throughout his time as head of the President's Office, Yermak was fixated on appointing "his own" people to as many positions as possible.

However, the article notes that in the most critical moment for Yermak himself, none of his appointees or protégés defended him – "even the person whose name and authority Yermak had effectively used to co-govern the state over the past years turned away."

The authors of the article also stress that Yermak himself contributed to Zelenskyy finally shedding any doubts about the correctness of the decision to make him step down.

According to the president's team members who spoke to Ukrainska Pravda, when Yermak was asked to write his letter of resignation, "he lashed out for a full half-hour in a hysterical tirade at the president, hurling insults, reproaches and accusations."

"Yermak genuinely did not believe that the top man [Zelenskyy – ed.] would remove him. Especially like this – presenting it as a fait accompli. They say what really angered him the most was that the president abandoned him," a person from Yermak's inner circle told Ukrainska Pravda.

"In the end, from Zelenskyy's point of view this was clearly an easier, albeit unpleasant, breakup. This is not the first friend the president has had to remove from the team. Andrii Bohdan, Ivan Bakanov, and even Serhii Shefir, who is almost like Zelenskyy's elder brother, have all gone before. For Yermak, this was his first such experience, which likely explains the intensity of his reaction," the article notes.

Most members of the president's team interviewed by Ukrainska Pravda agree that after Yermak stepped down, Zelenskyy seemed to return to an earlier version of himself.

"Now he is energetic again. Very much the president of 24 February 2022. And all of us with him. On Saturday we had very good meetings. The motivation and determination were genuinely incredible," one of Zelenskyy's team members told Ukrainska Pravda.

Background:

On 28 November, Ukrainska Pravda reported that officers from NABU and SAPO were conducting searches at Yermak's office in the government district. Ukrainska Pravda journalists managed to record around 10 employees from NABU and SAPO entering the government district.
Yermak confirmed that the search was taking place at his home and said he was ready to assist the investigation. UP reported that he had not been served with a notice of suspicion as of the morning.
Poland said that corruption investigations in Ukraine are "bad news" from the Polish point of view, as they do not make the current peace talks any easier.
Later, Zelenskyy announced that he had accepted Yermak's resignation from the post of head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and that the institution will now undergo a reboot. The president said he would hold consultations on Saturday with those who could take over as head of the Office.
After that, Yermak announced that he was joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine after submitting his letter of resignation against the backdrop of a corruption scandal and investigative actions by NABU at his home.

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