On the evening of Nov. 20, shortly before he recorded his nightly video address, Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the revolt amongst his own Servant of the People party. He refused to accede to the demand to fire his right-hand man, the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak; and he suggested that failure to stand with him at this time was doing the work of the Russians.
On Nov. 19, the faction of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko became the third of the opposition groups (along with the European Solidarity party led by former President Petro Poroshenko and the Golos party), to demand that Yermak be fired, the government resign and a national unity power-sharing arrangement be implemented. Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, led in the Verkhovna Rada legislature by Davyd Arakhamia, could not defend the charges of corruption throughout the Zelenskyy administration and were committed to forcing him to fire Yermak.
Zelenskyy reported last night, Nov. 20 that “sensitive” issues were raised in his meeting with his party’s leaders. “But the agreement is clear—everyone must work for Ukraine, and this is how it will be.... Priority number one for everyone is a constructive diplomatic process with the United States and all partners.”
