People’s Deputy from the “Servant of the People” faction and former representative of the president in the Verkhovna Rada, Fedir Venislavsky, expressed his conviction that the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, should step down from his position. The parliamentarian voiced his position on November 18 during the broadcast of the program “Freedom Live.”
This is reported by Kyiv24
Discussion of Yermak’s resignation among deputies
Venislavsky shared that the possibility of Yermak’s resignation is actively being discussed among the people’s deputies of the “Servant of the People” faction. At the same time, he emphasized that the final decision regarding personnel appointments rests with President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Venislavsky, the resignation of the head of the President’s Office could reduce the tension surrounding the government, as the main personnel appointments in the Cabinet were approved in the President’s Office.
“I did not demand the resignation of Andriy Yermak from the president, but I believe that Mr. Yermak’s resignation in this case would certainly alleviate the certain hype surrounding the government (referring to the Verkhovna Rada’s vote on the resignation of ministers – ed.), because it is no secret that the government was mostly formed after certain candidates were approved in the President’s Office: whether it was the president or a joint decision-making process, I cannot say because I do not have that information. Indeed, among the ‘servants’ there have been many discussions today that Mr. Yermak should leave, but the decision on the appointment of the head of the President’s Office is the president’s decision. We will wait to see what decision he makes when he returns and announces his decision,” Venislavsky stated.
Reasons for the intensified discussions around Yermak
As Venislavsky noted, the impetus for the new wave of discussions was the statements of People’s Deputy from the “Voice” faction, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, regarding the alleged involvement of Andriy Yermak under the pseudonym “Ali Baba” in audio materials from the NABU. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau has neither confirmed nor denied this information. Meanwhile, SAP prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko previously reported that “some ‘Ali Baba’ is holding meetings and assigning tasks to pursue NABU and SAP.”
On November 10, NABU announced the exposure of an organized criminal group that was engaged in obtaining illegal benefits from the contractors of “Energoatom” — the size of the bribes ranged from 10% to 15% of the value of contracts.
Within the framework of this case, suspicion was announced to eight individuals, including businessman and co-founder of the “Kvartal-95” studio, Timur Mindich (codename “Carlson”), former advisor to the Minister of Energy Ihor Mironyuk (“Rocket”), executive director for security at “Energoatom” Dmytro Basov (“Tenor”), and four other participants of the so-called “back office for money laundering”: Oleksandr Tsukerman (“Sugar Man”), Ihor Fursenko (“Ryoshik”), Lesya Ustyimenko, and Lyudmyla Zorina. Later, suspicion of illegal enrichment was also announced against former Deputy Prime Minister-Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov.
Chernyshov’s defenders stated that “Che Guevara,” mentioned in the NABU recordings, is not their client. They insist that the communication referenced in the case materials involving Chernyshov “never took place.”
In response to the high-profile investigations, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a “comprehensive cleansing and renewal” of the management of Ukraine’s energy sector.