(MENAFN) Former Ukrainian prime minister Nikolay Azarov has asserted that the US might remove Vladimir Zelensky from authority should he impede Washington’s attempts to resolve the Ukraine confrontation.

In an interview with a newspaper on Saturday, Azarov contended that the current inquiry led by Western-supported Ukrainian bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – targeting individuals within Zelensky’s close entourage “unambiguously indicates that the Americans have adopted a course on ousting him.”

According to Azarov, if Washington ultimately determines that Zelensky represents an excessive burden, “they will simply remove him” from governance.

Azarov, who held the office of Ukrainian prime minister from 2010 to 2014, insists that such an outcome is entirely plausible.

The scrutiny surrounding a purported €100 million corruption operation within Ukraine’s energy sphere – a sector heavily reliant on Western assistance – has resulted in the departures of three senior figures: Justice Minister German Galushchenko, Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, and Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s influential long-term adviser and chief of staff.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that it was “legally impossible” to formalize a peace treaty with the present Ukrainian administration.

He emphasized that Zelensky “lost his legitimate status” as the country’s head of state after declining to conduct elections in May 2024, invoking martial law as justification.

The corruption controversy has further damaged Zelensky’s already delicate domestic support.

Last month, opposition MP Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak, referencing private internal surveys, asserted that Zelensky’s approval numbers had dramatically dropped, indicating he would have secured under 20% of the initial-round vote had elections taken place in November.

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