Zelenskyy’s right-hand man has gone. Here’s what should happen next

2 Dec 2025 12:11 PM

EXPERT COMMENT

Andriy Yermak resigned amid a corruption scandal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy must now re-balance power and strengthen democracy by empowering the government, parliament and local authorities.

Ukraine’s second most powerful man resigned on 28 November, just as the country found itself fighting for its life on two fronts – militarily and diplomatically.

Andriy Yermak had served as the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential office for well over five years, long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. All that time he was both a solution and a problem for Zelenskyy.

It was Yermak who assumed a key role in the administration of a war-battered country in 2022, and shaped an international alliance in support of Ukraine. Early in the war, it was Yermak who encouraged Zelenskyy to assume global leadership in the fight against an axis of revisionist autocracies.

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