Before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Nov. 23, Ukraine’s Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak was in the deepest trouble of his career. The feared chief adviser to Zelenskyy was facing calls for his resignation from the top four political parties in the Verkhovna Rada, including his own Servant of the People. The anti-corruption agency NABU was thought to be prepared to next name him in Kiev’s corruption scandal, with massive amounts of foreign aid being siphoned off.
Today, Yermak ignored the cover story that Kiev appreciates Trump’s 28-point peace plan and simply wants to make a few improvements. Rather, he announced to Axios: “My proposal is to forget about the 28 points. Life changes so quickly that now I think it’s in the past. This is great, that our partners support us and listen to) us and are working to make a plan which will be acceptable for Ukraine.”
In testimony on Nov. 25 to the Anti-Corruption Policy Commission of the Verkhovna Rada, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos addressed Yermak’s attempt to back down his investigation. [He explained that, while Yermak has been reported to have counterattacked by ordering investigations of NABU, the collection of data on NABU detectives could be seen as a form of obstruction, but he stressed that they know how to deal with it. He added that the organizers of these counter-operations are known. The problem up to now has been that, at the direction of Zelenskyy and Yermak, all the security forces of Ukraine worked for Mindich and his corrupt kickback schemes.
He also denied that they were halting their investigation due to Zelenskyy’s call for national unity behind Zelenskyy. Kryvonos stated: “We have not stopped the investigation because of geopolitics; we simply do not publish materials that are still undergoing deeper examination to establish all circumstances. There is no pressure or obstruction on us, you can be sure we remain independent.”
Ukrainian anti-Kiev dissident analyst Oleg Tsaryov, explained today: “Ukrainian media write that NABU and SAP are preparing to hand over [an official] suspicion [notice] to Andriy Yermak. At the same time, Yermak himself does not stop putting pressure on anti-corruption officials. The head of the SAPO, Oleksandr Klymenko, whom Zelenskyy and Yermak have long wanted to arrest, said at one of his press conferences that Ali Baba-Yermak still demands that the Ukrainian security forces continue to persecute NABU and SAP employees. Ukrainian media write that Zelenskyy gathered the heads of NABU and SAP and tried to ‘hush up’ the corruption scandal, but the conversation ‘did not go.’”
Separately, Tucker Carlson named the Rupert Murdoch family’s Wall Street Journal as running cover for Yermak. He posted:
“For months, the Wall Street Journal has held a story detailing the personal corruption of Andrii Yermak, the second most powerful man in Ukraine. Yermak has skimmed hundreds of millions in American tax dollars meant for Ukraine aid. The Journal’s editors can prove that. But they’re not. Instead they’re protecting Yermak. Why?
“Because Yermak is leading Ukraine’s efforts to scuttle the Trump peace plan for Eastern Europe. The owners of the Wall Street Journal don’t want peace with Russia. They want war. At the same time, the Journal’s editorial page has attacked the Trump administration for pushing a peace agreement.
“This is true corruption. Without informing its readers, the Murdoch family is using both sides of its newspaper to continue the war with Russia. That’s not the behavior of a news organization. It’s the hallmark of an intel agency.”
