Andriy Yermak, who leads Kyiv’s negotiating team while working to finalize a proposed plan for the United States to end its four-year conflict with Russia, confirmed his apartment was being searched on Friday and said he was cooperating fully.
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“The investigators don’t face any challenges.” My attorneys are present on-site and working with the law enforcement officers, and they have been given full access to the apartment. He claimed on social media that his side and I were working together.
The searches were “authorised” and connected to an unnamed investigation, according to a joint statement from the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
The state’s atomic energy company’s alleged $100 million kickback scheme, which involved former senior officials and Zelenskyy’s former business partner, was the subject of a comprehensive investigation launched by the two anticorruption agencies earlier this month.
The president of Ukraine is currently being urged by the administration of US President Donald Trump to accept Washington’s request to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Ukraine and its allies in Europe had concerns that the Trump-backed plan contained some of Russia’s actively pushing demands, including that Ukraine cede more territory and reduce its military size.
However, Kyiv has stated that it is ready for negotiations, and a revised proposal has been made.
In addition, the peace negotiations are likely to cause tensions between Zelenskyy and his political rivals.
The European Solidarity opposition party called on Zelenskyy to engage in “an honest dialogue” with other parties in a statement released on Thursday.
‘Black Friday’
According to Viktor Shlinchak, a political analyst at the Kiev-based Institute for World Politics, Yermak’s searches were a “Black Friday” and Zelenskyy may have to be forced to sack him.
He wrote on Facebook, “It appears that we may soon have a different head of the negotiating team.”
Yermak, 54, is Zelenskyy’s most significant ally but a divisive figure in Kyiv where his opponents claim he has accumulated power, controls president power, and ruthlessly silences opposition figures.
Yermak, a former film producer and copyright lawyer, worked with Zelenskyy as a comedian before becoming president in the 1990s.
He is frequently referred to as the second-principal figure in the nation, and he’s even occasionally given the nickname “vice president.”
The state-run nuclear power company Energoatom, which provides more than half of the nation’s electricity, is the subject of the corruption investigation.
Rory Challands, a journalist for Al Jazeera from Kyiv, reported on Friday that “that]case has been swirling around Ukraine for a number of weeks and has rocked the government.” He explained that “some $100 million” was all that was said and that a laundromat was involved.
Anticorruption investigators believe Tymur Mindich, a former business partner of Zelenskyy, was the mastermind behind the plot.
Mindich has eluded the country, and absentia is most likely the case with him. The scandal has also caused two top ministers to resign.
Challands added that the investigation comes after Zelenskyy’s government attempted to retake control of his prosecution-general’s office in July after they tried to do so.
Source: Aljazeera
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