Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Raided by Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Police
Peace negotiations during Ukraine’s war could be disrupted when kyiv’s top negotiator was raided Friday morning by Ukraine’s anti-corruption police, apparently in connection with an increasingly widespread nuclear power bribery scheme.
Agents of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) searched property associated with Andriy Yermak on Friday morning. Yermak is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, one of the president’s closest allies and confidants, and the lead negotiator in the current round of peace talks.
The anti-corruption bureau issued a statement confirming the raid had taken place and investigations were underway at an address in Kyiv, but made no specific allegations against Yermak.
Yermak himself said in a separate statement that he was cooperating with the investigation. He said: “Today, NABU and SAPO are actually carrying out procedural actions at my home. There are no obstacles for investigators. They had full access to the apartment, on site – my lawyers, who interact with law enforcement.”
Although no specific allegations have been made, the raid is believed to be linked to a now wide-ranging investigation into a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme siphoning off funds from Energatom, Ukraine’s national nuclear energy company. Two ministers in President Zelensky’s government have already resigned in the wake of the scandal, and another top Zelensky ally – Rustem Umerov, Zelensky’s national security adviser – has been questioned.
Another close ally of President Zelensky, his longtime business partner Timur Mindich, was implicated as an architect of the Energatom kickback scheme but has already fled the country. Mindich was a co-owner of Zelensky’s television production company which created Servant of the Peoplea 2015 comedy that portrayed then-actor Volodymyr Zelensky as an ordinary man propelled to the presidency of Ukraine by a viral anti-corruption video on social media, which in turn propelled Zelensky into real life politics.
THE New York Times reports that what remains of Ukraine’s political opposition recently called on Yermak to resign due to his proximity to the ongoing scandal. He was also instrumental in the recent failed attempt to place Ukraine’s anti-corruption offices under direct control of the President’s Office, headed by Yermak. The project sparked rare protests in wartime Ukraine and ultimately had to be abandoned.
Corruption is a persistent problem for Ukraine and is one of the areas identified by the European Union as requiring major progress before the country can be admitted as a member state. As reported in 2023, Brussels declared that Ukraine “belongs” to the Union, but that the path to membership would not be short.
In a progress report on membership, the Union advised Ukraine to appoint more officers and judges to its anti-corruption offices, fully implement anti-corruption laws already in force and improve the accountability of the corruption prosecutor. In 2023, Ukraine was considered “weak” on organized crime and suffered from “widespread corruption” within law enforcement.
Even before the current crackdown on Energatom’s bribery scheme, arrests by anti-corruption police were a relatively common phenomenon within the Ukrainian government in recent years. As reported in 2024, a land project led to the arrest of the country’s agriculture minister. Before that, it was stated that the Minister of Defense, the country’s Attorney General, the head of intelligence and other high-ranking officials were fired on corruption grounds.
