MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky will meet with his Servant of the People party faction on Thursday evening to discuss the resignation of his chief of staff Andrey Yermak, Zelensky's communications advisor Dmitry Litvin said.
According to RBC-Ukraine, Litvin informed Ukrainian media that the meeting would take place in the evening. However, the exact time was not specified. The news agency's sources say the meeting may take place around 8:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. GMT).
The Servant of the People party holds a majority in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, which allows Zelensky to push through all the legislation he desires. If lawmakers leave the faction, however, he will lose control of the Rada. Before Litvin confirmed the meeting, parliamentarians were circulating information that it would not take place. In particular, Rada lawmaker Mariana Bezuglaya reported this. "A meeting with [Zelensky] was supposed to take place today in the Verkhovna Rada. According to my information, Zelensky does not want to meet and has not yet set a time for the meeting, and he also has doubts about the decision to dismiss Yermak. Yermak, meanwhile, is defending himself by all means. If [Zelensky] tries to hide and does not make a decision, it could be the beginning of the end. Without exaggeration. The atmosphere inside is heated to the limit. Outside too," she wrote on her Telegram channel, but soon deleted the post, noting that Zelensky would still meet with the lawmakers.
Earlier, Rada lawmaker Anna Skorokhod said that Yermak's resignation was a matter of principle. According to her, if he is not dismissed, new tapes about corruption at the top of the Ukrainian government could be published, causing an even bigger scandal.
Mindich case and power crisis
On November 10, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced a large-scale operation dubbed Midas to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. Searches were conducted at the home of Timur Mindich, who is often referred to as Zelensky’s "wallet," as well as at the residence of Justice Minister German Galuschenko, who had previously served as Minister of Energy, and at the Energoatom company. The NABU then began publishing excerpts from conversations in Mindich’s apartment, during which corruption schemes were discussed.
The disclosure of corruption in Zelensky's inner circle provoked a strong reaction in the Verkhovna Rada. The party of former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko (listed as a person involved in extremist activities or terrorism by Russia’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring) demanded Yermak's dismissal, the government's resignation, and the formation of a new parliamentary coalition with not only the pro-presidential Servant of the People party. Later, the party of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko joined the demands. In addition, there was information about a brewing rebellion within the ruling party. Some of its lawmakers also spoke about the need for Yermak's resignation and a change in the entire government.