President Donald Trump said the high-level corruption scandal in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s government was “not helpful” in pushing along peace efforts.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Monday, Trump spoke about Zelensky’s biggest domestic political crisis since Russia’s invasion, conservatively saying it hurt efforts.
“Ukraine’s got some difficult little problems,” Trump said about the resignation of Ukraine’s lead negotiator.
“But I think that there’s a good chance we can make a deal,” he added.
Ukrainska Pravda, one of the most influential liberal media outlets in Ukraine, published an in-depth report outlining the details of the resignation of the former head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak.
The report, citing high-level sources, revealed that Yermak was allegedly forced to resign by Zelensky himself after a concerted effort from an anti-Yermak faction entrenched across the government.
Sources told the outlet that the decisive meeting, coming shortly after Yermak’s apartment was raided by anti-corruption forces, involved Zelensky demanding his top lieutenant’s resignation. The demand triggered a “veritable half-hour tantrum, complete with insults, reproaches, and accusations.”
“Yermak didn’t believe until the very end that [Zelensky] would remove him. And even more so — when he was presented with a fait accompli. They say that what infuriated him most was precisely the fact that the president abandoned him,” a person close to Yermak told the outlet.
Several officials high up in the Ukrainian government were listed as pushing for Yermak’s ousting for the past two weeks, including Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk. The most surprising name listed as pushing for his ousting was Oleh Tatarov, the deputy head of the president’s office, described by some analysts as the third most powerful man in Ukraine.
Ukrainska Pravda reported positively on a secret “revolutionary committee,” a conspiracy of officials reaching up to the “highest echelons of government administration,” who played a central role in the final ousting. Their efforts were coordinated in a secret group chat.
The maneuvering by the group left Yermak isolated at the pivotal moment, abandoned despite his unprecedented power and hundreds of appointees throughout the government.
The outlet, which has been one of Yermak’s most prominent critics, boasted that Zelensky had turned over a new leaf after his departure.
“He’s energetic again now. He’s like the president of February 24, 2022. And all of us are with him. We had some really good meetings on Saturday. He’s truly incredibly motivated,” one of Zelensky’s team members told the outlet.
Reality might soon prove the opposite of this reading, as one of Yermak’s most useful aspects was his ability to serve as a lightning rod for public backlash, cushioning the president from criticism. Zelensky now has no shield from backlash against unpopular policies, making him more politically vulnerable.
Other outlets have begun noting the possible cascading effects of the political earthquake in the country.
“This is a powerful signal to the entire state apparatus that Zelensky is no longer the ‘source of authority’ in the country and cannot guarantee anything even to the people closest to him,” the influential Ukrainian outlet strana.ua said.
FORMER UKRAINIAN ‘CO-PRESIDENT’ YERMAK SAYS HE’S ‘GOING TO THE FRONT’ AFTER SHOCK RESIGNATION
Peter Korotaev, a Ukrainian writer who has extensively documented Yermak’s rise and the political intrigue surrounding him on his Events in Ukraine Substack, told the Washington Examiner on Saturday that the political heavyweight is a favorite scapegoat of many parties, and his ousting might be less influential than first perceived.
“Generally my feeling is that unless the rest of the office of President is purged (which is filled with Yermak’s people), it’s likely that little will change,” he said.