Zelensky teeters on the brink: Battle for survival for Ukrainian president after chief of workers’s corruption raid and rising disquiet amongst his personal get together’s MPs

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has spent nearly four years battling for the soul of his nation. 

Pushing back against the seemingly ever-present horde of Russian soldiers sent to the meat grinder by despot Vladimir Putin, the comedian-turned-wartime leader has united his nation in its fight against the invasion that formally began in February 2022. 

But this week, the gravest threat to his leadership reared its ugly head. This time, the threat came from within. 

Zelensky’s powerful right-hand man, now-ex chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday after anti-corruption investigators seeking to get to the bottom of the £75million energy kickback scandal raided his home and offices.  

Both NABU and SAPO, two agencies in charge of rooting out graft, alleged that a group of eight, including Ukrainian government officials, were collecting bribes from the state nuclear power company, Energoatom.

The group of officials are said to have collected 10-15 per cent of the value of each contract given, amounting to £75million that was unlawfully given to the tiny group – money that could have been used to help defend Ukraine from Russian attacks. 

Yermak’s political opponents have been trying to link him to the scandal that has rocked the embattled nation, claiming that either he or one of his underlings is the anonymous individual referred to as ‘Ali Baba’ in wiretapped conversations related to the investigation. 

The 54-year-old previously denied involvement in the scheme, telling German newspaper Welt last week: ‘People mention me, and sometimes, absolutely without any evidence, they try to accuse me of things I don’t even know about.’ 

The scandal provoked further anger after a former Ukrainian government official said the businessman allegedly at the head of the scheme ‘had an apartment with golden toilets’.

This businessman, Timur Mindich, is a long-time contact of Zelensky’s.

Even before Zelensky’s shock rise to high office in 2019, Mindich is said to have been one of his closest associates. 

Zelenksy and Mindich’s close friendship is well documented and, according to Ukrainian officials, experts and activists, Mindich’s rise to power is closely linked to his relationship with Zelensky’s inner circle.

The president used Mindich’s armored car during the final stretch of his presidential campaign in 2019, and in 2021, Zelensky celebrated his birthday in the businessman’s apartment during COVID. The two own properties in the same building.

Along with Mindich and Yermak, two ministers were made to resign amid the scandal. 

The long list of top-level scalps that the investigation has already claimed has seen support amongst the people of Ukraine waver. 

Oleksandr Merezhko, an MP in Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and a former adviser on the president’s election campaign, now chair of the foreign affairs committee, told The Sunday Times: ‘I think it was in the interests of the president and the country to at least suspend Yermak while the investigation is ongoing. 

‘He was a good chief of staff but this shouldn’t be allowed to cast a shadow on the president, especially when such serious peace negotiations are taking place.’ 

But with the country facing constant blackouts as as result of Russia’s invasion, the alleged kickback scheme affecting the energy industry has rubbed people up the wrong way. 

Kira Rudik, the leader of Holos, the opposition party in Ukraine’s parliament, told the Sunday Times: ‘There were so many painful things on those wiretaps. 

‘For example, they were talking about how not to build protection for our energy infrastructure. They said it was a waste of money.

‘It is very painful to think that all of this trust from world leaders and from the Ukrainian people, who were all working together for the good of Ukraine, was being used by a close circle of the president to create this massive corruption scheme. We are facing an incredibly tough winter.’

And all of this comes at a particularly pivotal point in the invasion. This weekend, top Trump administration officials are meeting Ukrainian negotiators in Florida, pushing to broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine and setting the stage for key talks planned this week in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, were expected to sit down with a Ukrainian delegation to further hash out the details of a proposed peace framework – talks that come at a sensitive moment for Ukraine as it continues to push back against Russian forces that invaded the country in 2022.

The Ukrainian delegation includes Andrii Hnatov, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces; Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister; and Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s security council, Zelensky has said.

Diplomats have been focused on revisions to Trump’s proposed 28-point plan developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow. That plan was criticized as being too weighted toward Russian demands. It had initially envisioned Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia – a sticking point for Kyiv.

The plan – which Trump has since downplayed as a ‘concept’ or a ‘map’ to be ‘fine-tuned’ – would also impose limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, block the country from joining NATO, and require Ukraine to hold elections in 100 days. Negotiators have indicated the framework has changed, but it’s not clear how its provisions have been altered.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would send Witkoff and perhaps Kushner to Moscow this week to meet with Putin about the plan. Both Witkoff and Kushner, like Trump, hail from the world of real estate that values dealmaking over the conventions of diplomacy. The pair also were behind a 20-point proposal that led to a ceasefire in Gaza.

Zelensky wrote on X that the Ukrainian delegation would ‘swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war’.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Zelensky said the American side was ‘demonstrating a constructive approach’.

‘In the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end,’ he said.

On Saturday, Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killed at least three people and wounded dozens more, officials said. Fresh attacks overnight into Sunday killed one person and wounded 19 others, including four children, local officials said, when a drone hit a nine-story apartment block in the city of Vyshhorod in the Kyiv region.

In a post on Telegram Sunday, Zelensky said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 122 strike drones and ballistic missiles.

‘Such attacks occur daily. This week alone, Russians have used nearly 1,400 strike drones, 1,100 guided aerial bombs and 66 missiles against our people. That is why we must strengthen Ukraine’s resilience every day. Missiles and air defense systems are necessary, and we must also actively work with our partners for peace,’ Zelensky said.

‘We need real, reliable solutions that will help end the war,’ he added.

After Ukraine claimed responsibility for damaging a major oil terminal on Saturday near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstan told Ukraine on Sunday to stop attacking the Black Sea terminal. 

The CPC pipeline, which starts in Kazakhstan and ends at the Novorossisyk terminal, handles a large proportion of Kazakhstan’s oil exports.

‘We view what has occurred as an action harming the bilateral relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future,’ Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.