When Andriy Yermak resigned as chief of staff to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just hours after anti-corruption agents raided his home amid a sprawling graft investigation, the tremor that shook Kyiv may carry a message far heavier than the official narrative suggests. On its face, the departure reads like a forced exit under pressure: a necessary purge to safeguard legitimacy, to reassure both Ukrainians and foreign backers.
But beneath the official skin lies a darker, more strategic undertone, a warning shot across the bow not only to Yermak, but to Zelenskyy himself.
Yermak was not just another functionary. For years, he was arguably the second-most powerful person in Ukraine; the man who controlled access, shaped messaging, directed both domestic power plays and foreign negotiation tracks. That makes his abrupt removal now, precisely when Ukraine is on the brink of sealing or rejecting a controversial U.S.-backed peace plan suspiciously timely.
Consider the optics: A trusted insider, part of the peace negotiation team, stripped of position under a cloud, days before Ukraine’s delegation was to travel for talks with U.S. envoys.
Now imagine the message this sends not just to Kyiv’s bureaucracy or to domestic elites who might have lined their pockets but to the president himself. If even the inner circle isn’t safe, then who is?
It doesn’t require public accusations or indictments to deliver the threat. The optics alone, a home search, resignation under pressure, media blitz about corruption, are enough to sow doubt, fear, and uncertainty. In a war-time context, under immense external pressure, that kind of uncertainty can be paralysing.
And make no mistake: Ukraine is being pulled in multiple conflicting directions. On one side, there is growing domestic frustration over corruption in the energy and defence sectors, scandals that sparked this purge. On the other, there is mounting foreign pressure to conclude a peace deal, perhaps at the cost of hard-won territory or compromising concessions. And at the centre of this storm stands Zelenskyy, reliant on trust, cohesion, and strength.
Yermak’s removal might therefore be read as the recalibration of political levers: a demonstration that no one, not even the closest adviser, is immune if they become inconvenient. For Zelenskyy, it is a reminder that the roof above him may hold no loyalty beyond expedience.
If the peace deal under negotiation requires unpopular concessions, territorial compromises, amnesties, unsavoury compromises, the Ukrainian public and political class alike will demand someone to blame. With Yermak gone, Zelenskyy alone could bear that burden. And if history is any guide, leaders under such pressure often find themselves isolated, stripped of allies, and forced to choose between being the scapegoat or being cast aside.
Perhaps that is the real signal behind this dramatic exit: before even drafting a final peace deal, before signing anything, shape the political battlefield. Show that loyalty, even to the president, is conditional. Show that even close proximity to power offers no guarantee. And show that, if needed, the next fall could be from the top.
Of course, there is a benign reading too: Ukraine’s leadership attempting a genuine reboot, showing the world that corruption cannot stand even in wartime. And if that is the story they want to tell, they will need consistency: accountability, independent investigations, and perhaps most difficult, a peace deal that preserves not only territorial integrity, but public trust.
Yet I remain unconvinced. In a country at war, with a fragile coalition of internal and external supporters, every move is also a message. And the message from Yermak’s resignation is too pointed, too well-timed, and too loaded to be mere coincidence.
Because if the system could swallow its own negotiator without public charges, maybe the next target won’t be negotiators at all. Maybe it will be the man holding the pen at the final treaty the one whose signature will decide Ukraine’s fate.
And that thought alone may be the gravest danger Kyiv now faces.
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