Volodymyr Zelensky is facing a political firestorm as calls grow for him to dump his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in a corruption scandal that now includes a golden toilet.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau says roughly £76 million was siphoned out of the country’s energy sector by business leaders and government officials. Yermak, Zelensky’s closest aide, is accused of choking off anti-corruption probes, though investigators have not accused him of taking a cut of the scheme himself.
Unnamed officials warned local media that Zelensky’s entire government could collapse if he refuses to remove Yermak, saying, “Our enemies smell blood.”
The allegations hit a nerve in a country where families endure constant rolling blackouts because of Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure.
Last week, anti-corruption investigators released findings from a 15-month probe into an attempted embezzlement operation inside Energoatom, the state-run nuclear agency. The report included secret recordings of high-profile players who were assigned mafia-style nicknames.
Timur Mindich, a longtime friend and business partner of Zelensky, is accused of engineering the plot. He bolted from Ukraine just hours before investigators showed up at his home. Detectives found a golden toilet bowl in his bathroom, a symbol of excess that landed like a gut punch in a country fighting for survival.
A golden toilet said to be from one of the bathrooms in the apartment of Zelensky’s former business partner Timur Mindich, who has fled the country (Telegram)
Mindich co-owns Kvartal 95, the entertainment company Zelensky built before entering politics. Their personal relationship goes back years.
The fallout has already taken down two ministers. Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk resigned last week, both insisting they did nothing wrong.
Lawmakers are now openly floating Yermak as the next to go, after opposition figures claimed he or one of his deputies may be “Ali Baba,” an alias used in the wiretapped recordings at the center of the case.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an opposition lawmaker from the Holos party, told Politico that even members of Zelensky’s party, Servant of the People, believe Yermak may be tied to the scheme.
Nabu chief Semen Kryvonos has refused to say whether Yermak appears in the wiretaps. Yermak has denied any involvement.
Pressure on the chief of staff has been building since the summer, when he was accused of leading efforts to gut the country’s anti-corruption agencies. Critics say he has also tried to consolidate power during wartime and wields an outsized influence over the president.
Zelensky and Yermak have grown unusually close since the full-scale Russian invasion began. According to the Financial Times, the two sleep near each other in the presidential bunker and unwind with table tennis or old movies.
Some in Kyiv see the scandal as a rare chance to push out a top adviser they believe has steered the administration off course.
The uproar comes as Zelensky tries to convince Western backers he can safeguard billions in aid while his government stares down a massive budget shortfall.
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