Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and his former head of office Andriy Yermak, are pictured during a meeting in Madrid on Nov. 18, 2025.Oscar Del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images

Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff charged with corruption – POLITICO

by · POLITICO

KYIV — Ukrainian state anti-corruption watchdogs have officially charged Andriy Yermak, the former head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, with corruption and money laundering.

“The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s office charged the former head of the president’s office of Ukraine, a member of an organized crime group, involved in laundering UAH 460 million [€8.9 million] on elite construction near Kyiv,” NABU said in a late evening statement on Monday.

The watchdogs did not name Yermak, but said the latest charges relate to the so-called Midas operation, an €85 million corruption scandal at Ukraine’s state Energoatom energy company. The probe has touched other Zelenskyy associates — entrepreneur Timur Mindich and Oleksiy Chenyshov, Ukraine’s former deputy prime minister.