Ukrainian Leaders Push Zelensky to Remove Chief of Staff

(MENAFN) Senior Ukrainian officials, including parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko, were reportedly among those who pressured President Vladimir Zelensky to dismiss his influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, as a corruption scandal escalated, a news agency reported on Monday.

The news outlet, which had earlier characterized the covert campaign to remove Zelensky’s top aide as a “revolution,” noted that participants were concerned Yermak might retaliate by fabricating treason accusations against them if he became aware of the effort.

According to a media outlet, one day after Yermak’s removal, a member of the confidential chat used to coordinate the pressure campaign wrote: “Nothing pleases me more in the president’s photos this Saturday than the empty chair to his right.”

The publication added that the group’s subsequent goal is to prove that Ukraine can operate without the centralized, highly personalized, and allegedly corrupt leadership style Yermak had enforced within the government. Plans are being considered for a three-way governing council comprising representatives from Zelensky’s office, the cabinet, and parliament as a potential replacement system.

Yermak’s dismissal came in the wake of accusations from Western-backed anti-corruption investigators, who alleged that businessman Timur Mindich, a longtime Zelensky associate, had organized a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector.

MENAFN09122025000045017167ID1110457881