Ukraine’s powerful presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, is facing intensifying legal and political pressure after anti-corruption investigators conducted searches at both his official premises in Kyiv’s government quarter and his private residence.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) confirmed that the operations form part of an authorised investigation, while Yermak said he was fully co-operating and that investigators faced no obstacles.
The searches are linked to a far-reaching probe into alleged large-scale corruption at the state nuclear energy operator Energoatom. NABU and SAPO say they have documented the activities of what they describe as a high-level criminal organisation that allegedly took 10–15% kickbacks on Energoatom contracts, effectively placing control of a strategic company with annual revenues of more than €4 billion in the hands of outside figures.
The operation, code-named “Midas”, is based on some 1,000 hours of audio recordings – widely referred to in Ukraine as the “Mindich tapes” – and has already led to charges against eight suspects. The alleged ringleader is film producer and presidential associate Timur Mindich, who is reported to have left Ukraine shortly before searches began.
Media reports and opposition politicians claim that Yermak appears on those recordings under the codename “Ali Baba”. Ukraine’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Oleksandr Klymenko, has publicly stated that a person known as “Ali Baba” is heard chairing meetings with law-enforcement officials and allegedly assigning tasks aimed at putting pressure on NABU and SAPO.
Opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak has said he believes this individual to be Andriy Borysovych Yermak, citing multiple unnamed sources. Yermak has not been formally named as a suspect, but anti-corruption activists note that searches of this kind in Ukraine often precede the presentation of charges.
The development comes after weeks of growing disquiet in Kyiv over the political fallout from the Energoatom affair. Several ministers have already left office in connection with the broader scandal, and there have been repeated calls from both opposition parties and some members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s own Servant of the People faction for Yermak’s dismissal. Despite this, Zelenskyy has continued to back his chief of staff. Only days before the searches, he appointed Yermak to lead the Ukrainian delegation at talks in Switzerland with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other American officials on Donald Trump’s controversial 28-point peace plan for Ukraine.
This overlap between a domestic corruption investigation and sensitive high-level diplomacy has fuelled speculation in Kyiv that the case might be linked to US efforts to push through a settlement to the war with Russia. Supporters of this theory argue that the timing of the searches could increase pressure on Zelenskyy to modify Ukraine’s negotiating stance. However, the Energoatom probe pre-dates the latest peace initiative and has been unfolding for more than a year, suggesting that the move against Yermak is primarily the result of an internal anti-corruption process now reaching the upper levels of Ukraine’s political system.
At the same time, the wider strategic context limits the immediate impact of the Yermak case on any prospective deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the leaked US plan as a potential “basis for future agreements” but continues to insist on Ukrainian troop withdrawals from occupied eastern territories before Moscow halts its offensive. With Russian forces still pressing their campaign and Kyiv rejecting territorial concessions, most analysts see little prospect of a comprehensive peace agreement in the near term, regardless of developments around the president’s chief of staff.
The most immediate consequences are domestic. Since assuming leadership of the Presidential Office, Yermak has come to be viewed by many Ukrainians as a central power-broker, shaping decisions across security, foreign and personnel policy. Critics argue that this concentration of influence in the hands of an unelected official has blurred the line between the president and his chief of staff, making their political fortunes closely intertwined. Any formal suspicion or indictment against Yermak would therefore pose not only a personal challenge for him, but also a serious test of Zelenskyy’s governing model and his ability to manage an orderly transition at the top of his administration.
For Ukraine’s western partners, the handling of the case will be watched as a measure of the strength and independence of its anti-corruption institutions, which Brussels has repeatedly described as a key precondition for further progress towards EU membership. Ensuring that NABU and SAPO can pursue investigations involving figures close to the presidency without political interference is seen in Kyiv and in European capitals as central to maintaining public trust at home and international support abroad. As the Energoatom affair moves closer to the heart of power, the coming weeks are likely to show whether Ukraine’s leadership is prepared to allow that process to run its full course.
