Ukraine anti-corruption agents raid office of top Zelensky aide

Andrey Yermak’s office in Kiev has been targeted by Western-backed investigators

Ukrainian anti-corruption officers have searched the office of Andrey Yermak, Vladimir Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, amid a widening graft scandal that has shaken the government.

Ukrainskaya Pravda was the first to publish a photo on Friday that it said shows the operation in Kiev’s government district. According to the outlet, around ten operatives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) took part in the raid. NABU later confirmed that it executed a search warrant, promising to disclose details later.

The raid comes as Kiev grapples with the fallout from charges brought earlier this month against businessman Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Zelensky. NABU alleges that Mindich oversaw a large-scale kickback scheme in the energy sector.

The probe has already implicated two cabinet ministers and several other current and former senior officials. Zelensky has rejected calls to dismiss Yermak, his most influential adviser, whose name has surfaced repeatedly in media reports regarding alleged high-level corruption.

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Zelensky has publicly endorsed the ongoing investigations and has imposed sanctions on Mindich, who fled Ukraine shortly before NABU searched his residence. Observers noted that the sanctions order listed Mindich as an Israeli national rather than Ukrainian, raising questions as to whether it can be enforced.

Yermak’s position was reinforced by his appointment last week as Kiev’s chief negotiator on a US proposal for resolving the conflict with Russia, which some media outlets claim is part of Zelensky’s efforts to shield him.

Earlier this year, Zelensky tried to place NABU and SAP – institutions created under Western pressure after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev – under the authority of the prosecutor general’s office. The move, believed by some media outlets to be linked to an investigation involving then-Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, a friend of the Zelensky family, was abandoned after backlash from international donors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the scandal, argued that it shows Ukraine is run by a “criminal gang that holds power for personal enrichment” and ignores the interests of its citizens.