“
A person who, in almost 6 years, seemed to have become so massive that even the president did not dare to move it alone.
About the fact that Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Volodymyr Zelenskyi, may become the next figure in the “Midas” operation. was the first to report “Ukrainian Pravda” – as early as November 12.
Advertising:
Then, on the third day after the “Mindich tapes” were made public, hardly anyone could imagine that in two weeks NABU and SAP would break into the government quarter in order to conduct urgent investigative actions in the residence of not the first, but not the second most influential person in the country.
The last person who would want to believe this was the president of Ukraine.
But at 6 a.m. on November 28, three cars with anti-corruption officers drove up to the checkpoint in the government quarter from Shovkovychna Street, and it was impossible not to believe in their reality. The President, the head of his Office and the government system in general had to quickly make some decisions and find a way, how and with whom to move forward in order to avoid collapse.
“Ukrainian Pravda” learned how Zelenskyi decided to fire the head of the OPU, how key security forces perceived it, and what high-ranking officials who united to remove Yermak from power wrote in a secret “revolutionary” chat.
The first searches in Yermak Andriy Yermak probably does not know that it was not the heads of the law enforcement agencies, to whom he wrote with a request for help, but one military man at the checkpoint in the government quarter that could have saved him from the first loud searches.
When ten people from NABU, SAP and witnesses approached the concrete blocks on Shovkovychnaya Street, unforeseen difficulties awaited them.
It turned out that the certificates of the law enforcement officers and the court order from November 21 are not enough to pass the sign “Prohibited zone. Passage (passage) is prohibited (closed).” The head of the checkpoint, armed with a machine gun, started calling someone and stood in the way of the law enforcement officers.
“We suggest that one of you just accompany us and that’s it”said the NABU detective.
Instead, the head of the checkpoint continued to insist that a representative of the operational security department should come soon and the issue of passage to the territory of the government quarter would be resolved.
“You are wasting time. Investigative action is an urgent action. Come on, please, one of you will accompany us,” – the NABUSHniks continued to insist on urgency.
“I understand, but I have a procedure”– the guardian of government peace was already half-shouting.
“There is a law – this is the main procedure. I have reason to believe that documents that could be evidence may be destroyed now,” – no less loudly summed up the anti-corruption officers and, having started documenting the investigative action on camera, entered the government quarter. Despite the disagreement of the senior checkpoint officer and his machine gun, which he slung over his shoulder from the beginning of the dialogue.
Later, the UP journalist witnessed several tense phone conversations with the head of the checkpoint. From the context, it could be assumed that these were explanations to the management, and people on the other side of the hearing were not happy with what they heard.
According to the sources of “Ukrainian Pravda” in the law enforcement agencies, the searches took place only at Yermak’s place of residence near the OP, they decided not to go into his office of the head of the President’s Office on the second floor at the Bank’s police station.
Despite this, NABU and SAP succeeded exclude two laptops and several phones, the contents of which, according to interlocutors in the anti-corruption authorities, began to be studied on the same day.
At approximately 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the anti-corruption officers left the government quarter. However, the UP film crew managed to notice that the heads of NABU and SAP had also left there earlier. Then it became clear that Andriy Yermak remained without suspicion that day.
The fact that the search warrant for the head of the OP is dated November 21 can serve as confirmation of the information that President Zelensky had not only information about possible questions to his closest assistant, but at least a week to get rid of its before the start of the investigation.
Despite another discrediting campaign about the disruption of negotiations and the irreplaceability of the head of the presidential office, which was launched by the Office of the President, it seems that NABU and SAP decided to attack precisely corruption, and not the state during a full-scale invasion.
“Suspicion of him is a matter of time”, – the sources of “Ukrainian Pravda” in law enforcement circles are convincing at the moment.
And, it seems, Andriy Yermak decided not to waste this time. Between two options: to leave the country or to hide from a criminal case by mobilization – he chose the second.
Yermak’s last hours in office While NABU investigators and SAP prosecutors were conducting searches at the place of residence of the head of the OP on Shovkovychnaya at that time, at his workplace, in the center of decision-making, complex work on political re-evaluation was going on.
Operation Midas, conceived as a demonstration of institutional independence during the war, in reality revealed another dimension: a blow to the figure representing the center of the power vertical inevitably becomes a test for the president himself.
At 9 a.m., Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, head of the SBU Vasyl Malyuk, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Semen Krivonos and head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office Oleksandr Klymenko arrived at the President’s Office.
By the way, the appearance of Malyuk at the meeting is not accidental. As the UP managed to find out, Yermak tried all last week before his dismissal to get the head of the SBU to resign, because he supposedly “saw through” the Midas operation and did not protect him.
President Zelenskyy met the guests in the mood of a person who suddenly realized that the battles on two fronts at the same time – external and internal – threaten not individual political figures, but the very governance of the country.
According to Ukrainian Pravda sources, this was at least the third such meeting in the last two weeks since the beginning of Mindichgate. But this time, the heads of the anti-corruption vertical were also accompanied by Malyuk and Fedorov as negotiators.
The debate revolved around a dilemma made even more acute by the contrasts of war: the fight against corruption must be uncompromising, but it must not destroy diplomatic opportunities that rely on the appearance of governability.
Therefore, they wanted to find an option for Zelenskyi, under which the active phase of searches directed against the head of the OP, would not be read by international partners as a signal of chaos, which, in turn, undermines the fragile balance of the peace dialogue.
The president listened to arguments without the usual political armor and increasingly leaned towards the obvious: the state should not be subject to a personal point of support, which, having absorbed too much influence, lost touch with reality.
Signals from within the ruling team led to the conclusion that Yermak should be fired. UP sources claim that a similar In the past two weeks, several key figures have denounced the situation: technocrat Mykhailo Fedorov, Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal, and even Yermak’s former man Oleg Tatarov, to whom Ali Baba (one of Yermak’s code names) also “cut the tasks” regarding anti-corruption officers.
Last week, the president seemed to hear their arguments, but at the last moment everything changed again. Yermak even headed a delegation for negotiations with American partners in Switzerland.
After an hour of discussion in Zelenskyi’s office, the heads of NABU and SAP left the government quarter without announcing the suspicion to the head of the OP. And the president took a break to consider the situation.
There was no contact with Yermak himself at that time.
In the end, after a few hours, the president made the final decision to release Yermak. The head of state called Mykhailo Fedorov to help prepare a video address to the people, in which they were to announce the resignation of the head of the OP.
“It prevailed that this cannot be avoided. And that it is fully supported by everyone – from people’s deputies, security forces, society to key international partners. That this is a statesman’s decision necessary for the country to restart many key institutions and critical processes in the country.” – says one of the participants of these processes off the record.
American partners could also agree with him. As UP knows, the Americans have been unsuccessfully trying to hint to Zelenskyi for the past six months changing Yermak to the position of key negotiator.
Both public tools and harsh anonymous comments for the Western media were used, as in the large analytical material in Politico, and even non-public searches for alternative channels of communication with Ukraine, such as, for example, through the line of the head of the State Administration of Ukraine Kyryl Budanov.
The first days of power without Yermak “Nothing is more pleasing in Saturday’s photos from the president’s office than the empty chair to his right.”
A message of this content was written by one of the top officials of the state, commenting on the meetings on the fourth floor of the President’s Office without Andriy Yermak.
Only an interested reader will be able to find this comment on the Internet. It was written in a secret “revolutionary” chat. In it, the current influential members of the ruling team, risking that they would be exposed by the all-powerful head of the OP, coordinated their actions to remove Yermak from office.
The full circle of participants of this secret “ruling committee” of the UP has not yet been established. But we can say with absolute certainty that we are talking about the highest level of state administration.
“Yermak’s resignation was already an inevitable reality. He simply united everyone against him,” – explains one of the “revolutionaries” in a conversation with UP, citing indirect evidence. They say they are joking, the post about the “empty chair next to the president” collected the most likes during the existence of their chat.
It is clear that these words contain some frivolous wit, but there is something terribly symbolic in them.
Throughout his tenure as the head of the OP, Andrii Yermak was focused, not to say obsessed, on appointing “his” people to the largest possible number of positions. The latest composition of the Cabinet of Ministers or almost any important personnel rotation in recent years perfectly illustrates this.
However, at a critical moment for Yermak himself, none of his appointees and nominees, even those whose careers would never have happened if it weren’t for him, came to the defense of the head of the OP. A person who was served by hundreds literally in one moment was completely alone.
Even the one whose name and will Yermak actually co-ruled the state in recent years turned away.
True, the former head of the OP himself did his best to ensure that Zelenskyy got rid of doubts about the correctness of the decision to resign. According to interlocutors of the UP in the president’s team, the head of the Office, when he was asked to write a statement, gave the president a formal half-hour tantrum with insults, reproaches and accusations.
“Yermak didn’t believe until the last that the First (Zelensky – UP) would remove him. Even so – when faced with the fact. They say that the fact that the president left him drove him out the most.” a person from Yermak’s close circle explains the drama of the situation.
In the end, this parting experience was clearly easier for Zelenskyi, albeit unpleasant. This is not the first friend that the president has to exclude from the team. Andriy Bohdan, and Ivan Bakanov, and even the elder brother Serhiy Shefir were already there. It was Yermak’s first experience, which is probably why his reaction was so violent.
“The gap was terrible. But it’s cool that the president finally saw who he warmed to and now understood everything. Like Kai after The Snow Queen”– sums up one of the interlocutors of the UP from among high-ranking officials.
Most of the interviewed members of the president’s team agree that after Yermak’s resignation, Zelensky seems to have returned to his former version.
“Now he is energetic again. This kind of president of the 24.02.2022 model. And all of our people are with him. There were very good meetings on Saturday. Really crazy motivation and attitude”– one of the members of Zelenskyi’s team says off the record.
It will be possible to observe how stable the government system is and is capable of making decisions in the conditions of life without Yermak already this week.
Now the authorities are faced with several very important tasks, which will have practical political consequences and will give certain signals to the entire system and partners of Ukraine.
First of all, the president must decide on the next head of his Office. Depending on which candidate will be chosen for this, it will become clear whether the break with Yermak was just a cosmetic repair in OP, or a preparation for a major restructuring of the power system.
As of the beginning of the week, interlocutors of the UP are naming several names for the position of the head of the Office at once. Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal and Deputy Head of the OP for Military Affairs Pavlo Palisa look like a group of the most realistic candidates.
In addition, there is a possibility that the head of the OP may be offered to the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Serhiy Kislytsa, who is currently involved in the negotiation track with the USA. Such an appointment could shift the emphasis of the position of the head of the Office from scandals and insiders to major international work, which could somewhat calm the political situation.
The transfer of Svyridenko’s premiere to the OP is impossible. Firstly, because Yuliya Anatolyivna herself looks at such a move as a downshift, secondly, it would require too great an effort to restart the entire Cabinet.
And the Council, let’s remind you, still has to gather votes for the budget, which was supposed to be voted on last session week, but was afraid to bring it to the hall. As of the beginning of the week, there were still no confirmed votes for the budget. The meeting of the budget committee is scheduled for Monday immediately after the meeting of the monomajority faction, so it can be assumed that there will be a vote on the budget.
In addition, the parliament is preparing to fill vacant positions in the government. As the UP knows, Zelens is a candidate for the Minister of Justice who has already been chosen Instead of the scandalous Galushchenko, the Ministry of Justice should be headed by the current head of the legal committee of the Rada from “Servant of the People” Denys Maslov.
At the same time, there are still no candidates for the post of Minister of Energy. The previous main candidates, Serhiy Koretsky from Naftogaz and Andriy Gerus from the Servants faction, did not want to head the Ministry of Energy. Therefore, while he is in the status of acting will be managed by Artem Nekrasov. In the meantime, there will be some big recruiting process to find a new minister.
***
“The situation is still shaky. You know, it’s like one of your teeth has deteriorated and started to hurt. And it hurts so much that you can’t chew with any teeth at all. And now this tooth has been pulled out, but no one knows for sure whether it has infected the others and whether they can still work.” – one of the interlocutors of the UP in the Council describes the situation in the government.
The system quickly accepted Andriy Yermak’s dismissal. But in order for truly qualitative changes to take place, Zelensky needs not just to change his name, but to rethink the role of such a body as the Office of the President.
First of all, the OP should abandon the shameful practice of forceful selective pressure on everyone whom someone does not like. Bringing the law enforcement agencies to their senses so that they cease to be “cashiers” and become guardians of the law again is one of the first tasks that the new team in the Office must solve.
It is also necessary to analyze how it happened that the president was driven into an open conflict with most of the leading independent media. Maybe when advisers on working with the media can only offer war and brutal pressure on inconvenient editorials, then they are just bad advisers?
And most importantly, it is necessary to understand that what the president himself very rightly asks society for – unity – is not a constant, it is a daily work.
Roman Romaniuk, Sevgil Musaeva, Mykhailo Tkach
”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
A person who, in almost 6 years, seemed to have become so massive that even the president did not dare to move it alone.
About the fact that Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Volodymyr Zelenskyi, may become the next figure in the “Midas” operation. was the first to report “Ukrainian Pravda” – as early as November 12.
Advertising:
Then, on the third day after the “Mindich tapes” were made public, hardly anyone could imagine that in two weeks NABU and SAP would break into the government quarter in order to conduct urgent investigative actions in the residence of not the first, but not the second most influential person in the country.
The last person who would want to believe this was the president of Ukraine.
But at 6 a.m. on November 28, three cars with anti-corruption officers drove up to the checkpoint in the government quarter from Shovkovychna Street, and it was impossible not to believe in their reality. The President, the head of his Office and the government system in general had to quickly make some decisions and find a way, how and with whom to move forward in order to avoid collapse.
“Ukrainian Pravda” learned how Zelenskyi decided to fire the head of the OPU, how key security forces perceived it, and what high-ranking officials who united to remove Yermak from power wrote in a secret “revolutionary” chat.
The first searches in Yermak Andriy Yermak probably does not know that it was not the heads of the law enforcement agencies, to whom he wrote with a request for help, but one military man at the checkpoint in the government quarter that could have saved him from the first loud searches.
When ten people from NABU, SAP and witnesses approached the concrete blocks on Shovkovychnaya Street, unforeseen difficulties awaited them.
It turned out that the certificates of the law enforcement officers and the court order from November 21 are not enough to pass the sign “Prohibited zone. Passage (passage) is prohibited (closed).” The head of the checkpoint, armed with a machine gun, started calling someone and stood in the way of the law enforcement officers.
“We suggest that one of you just accompany us and that’s it”said the NABU detective.
Instead, the head of the checkpoint continued to insist that a representative of the operational security department should come soon and the issue of passage to the territory of the government quarter would be resolved.
“You are wasting time. Investigative action is an urgent action. Come on, please, one of you will accompany us,” – the NABUSHniks continued to insist on urgency.
“I understand, but I have a procedure”– the guardian of government peace was already half-shouting.
“There is a law – this is the main procedure. I have reason to believe that documents that could be evidence may be destroyed now,” – no less loudly summed up the anti-corruption officers and, having started documenting the investigative action on camera, entered the government quarter. Despite the disagreement of the senior checkpoint officer and his machine gun, which he slung over his shoulder from the beginning of the dialogue.
Later, the UP journalist witnessed several tense phone conversations with the head of the checkpoint. From the context, it could be assumed that these were explanations to the management, and people on the other side of the hearing were not happy with what they heard.
According to the sources of “Ukrainian Pravda” in the law enforcement agencies, the searches took place only at Yermak’s place of residence near the OP, they decided not to go into his office of the head of the President’s Office on the second floor at the Bank’s police station.
Despite this, NABU and SAP succeeded exclude two laptops and several phones, the contents of which, according to interlocutors in the anti-corruption authorities, began to be studied on the same day.
At approximately 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the anti-corruption officers left the government quarter. However, the UP film crew managed to notice that the heads of NABU and SAP had also left there earlier. Then it became clear that Andriy Yermak remained without suspicion that day.
The fact that the search warrant for the head of the OP is dated November 21 can serve as confirmation of the information that President Zelensky had not only information about possible questions to his closest assistant, but at least a week to get rid of its before the start of the investigation.
Despite another discrediting campaign about the disruption of negotiations and the irreplaceability of the head of the presidential office, which was launched by the Office of the President, it seems that NABU and SAP decided to attack precisely corruption, and not the state during a full-scale invasion.
“Suspicion of him is a matter of time”, – the sources of “Ukrainian Pravda” in law enforcement circles are convincing at the moment.
And, it seems, Andriy Yermak decided not to waste this time. Between two options: to leave the country or to hide from a criminal case by mobilization – he chose the second.
Yermak’s last hours in office While NABU investigators and SAP prosecutors were conducting searches at the place of residence of the head of the OP on Shovkovychnaya at that time, at his workplace, in the center of decision-making, complex work on political re-evaluation was going on.
Operation Midas, conceived as a demonstration of institutional independence during the war, in reality exposed another dimension: a blow to the figure representing the center of power vertical, inevitably becomes a test for the president himself.
At 9 a.m., Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, head of the SBU Vasyl Malyuk, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Semen Krivonos and head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office Oleksandr Klymenko arrived at the President’s Office.
By the way, the appearance of Malyuk at the meeting is not accidental. As the UP managed to find out, Yermak tried all last week before his dismissal to get the head of the SBU to resign, because he supposedly “saw through” the Midas operation and did not protect him.
President Zelenskyy met the guests in the mood of a person who suddenly realized that the battles on two fronts at the same time – external and internal – threaten not individual political figures, but the very governance of the country.
According to Ukrainian Pravda sources, this was at least the third such meeting in the last two weeks since the beginning of Mindichgate. But this time, the heads of the anti-corruption vertical were also accompanied by Malyuk and Fedorov as negotiators.
The debate revolved around a dilemma made even more acute by the contrasts of war: the fight against corruption must be uncompromising, but it must not destroy diplomatic opportunities that rely on the appearance of governability.
Therefore, they wanted to find an option for Zelenskyi, under which the active phase of searches directed against the head of the OP, would not be read by international partners as a signal of chaos, which, in turn, undermines the fragile balance of the peace dialogue.
The president listened to arguments without the usual political armor and increasingly leaned towards the obvious: the state should not be subject to a personal point of support, which, having absorbed too much influence, lost touch with reality.
Signals from within the ruling team led to the conclusion that Yermak should be fired. UP sources claim that a similar position has been reported over the past two weeks by several key figures: technocrat Mykhailo Fedorov, Speaker of the Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal, and even Yermak’s former man Oleg Tatarov, to whom Ali Baba (one of Yermak’s code names) also “cut the tasks” regarding anti-corruption officers.
Last week, the president seemed to hear their arguments, but at the last moment everything changed again. Yermak even headed a delegation for negotiations with American partners in Switzerland.
After an hour of discussion in Zelenskyi’s office, the heads of NABU and SAP left the government quarter without announcing the suspicion to the head of the OP. And the president took a break to consider the situation.
There was no contact with Yermak himself at that time.
In the end, after a few hours, the president made the final decision to release Yermak. The head of state called Mykhailo Fedorov to help prepare a video address to the people, in which they were to announce the resignation of the head of the OP.
“It prevailed that this cannot be avoided. And that it is fully supported by everyone – from people’s deputies, security forces, society to key international partners. That this is a statesman’s decision necessary for the country to restart many key institutions and critical processes in the country.” – says one of the participants of these processes off the record.
American partners could also agree with him. As UP knows, the Americans have been unsuccessfully trying to hint to Zelenskyi for the past six months changing Yermak to the position of key negotiator.
Both public tools and harsh anonymous comments for the Western media were used, as in the large analytical material in Politico, and even non-public searches for alternative channels of communication with Ukraine, such as, for example, through the line of the head of the State Administration of Ukraine Kyryl Budanov.
The first days of power without Yermak “Nothing is more pleasing in Saturday’s photos from the president’s office than the empty chair to his right.”
A message of this content was written by one of the top officials of the state, commenting on the meetings on the fourth floor of the President’s Office without Andriy Yermak.
Only an interested reader will be able to find this comment on the Internet. It was written in a secret “revolutionary” chat. In it, the current influential members of the ruling team, risking that they would be exposed by the all-powerful head of the OP, coordinated their actions to remove Yermak from office.
The full circle of participants of this secret “ruling committee” of the UP has not yet been established. But we can say with absolute certainty that we are talking about the highest level of state administration.
“Yermak’s resignation was already an inevitable reality. He simply united everyone against him,” – explains one of the “revolutionaries” in a conversation with UP, citing indirect evidence. They say they are joking, the post about the “empty chair next to the president” collected the most likes during the existence of their chat.
It is clear that these words contain some frivolous wit, but there is something terribly symbolic in them.
Throughout his tenure as the head of the OP, Andrii Yermak was focused, not to say obsessed, on appointing “his” people to the largest possible number of positions. The latest composition of the Cabinet of Ministers or almost any important personnel rotation in recent years perfectly illustrates this.
However, at a critical moment for Yermak himself, none of his appointees and nominees, even those whose careers would never have happened if it weren’t for him, came to the defense of the head of the OP. A person who was served by hundreds literally in one moment was completely alone.
Even the one whose name and will Yermak actually co-ruled the state in recent years turned away.
True, the former head of the OP himself did his best to ensure that Zelenskyy got rid of doubts about the correctness of the decision to resign. According to interlocutors of the UP in the president’s team, the head of the Office, when he was asked to write a statement, gave the president a formal half-hour tantrum with insults, reproaches and accusations.
“Yermak didn’t believe until the last that the First (Zelensky – UP) would remove him. Even so – when faced with the fact. They say that the fact that the president left him drove him out the most.” a person from Yermak’s close circle explains the drama of the situation.
In the end, this parting experience was clearly easier for Zelenskyi, albeit unpleasant. This is not the first friend that the president has to exclude from the team. Andriy Bohdan, and Ivan Bakanov, and even the elder brother Serhiy Shefir were already there. It was Yermak’s first experience, which is probably why his reaction was so violent.
“The gap was terrible. But it’s cool that the president finally saw who he warmed to and now understood everything. Like Kai after The Snow Queen”– sums up one of the interlocutors of the UP from among high-ranking officials.
Most of the interviewed members of the president’s team agree that after Yermak’s resignation, Zelensky seems to have returned to his former version.
“Now he is energetic again. This kind of president of the 24.02.2022 model. And all of our people are with him. There were very good meetings on Saturday. Really crazy motivation and attitude”– one of the members of Zelenskyi’s team says off the record.
To what extent the system of power is stable and capable of making decisions in the conditions of life without Yermak, it will be possible to observe already literally about this week.
Now the authorities are faced with several very important tasks, which will have practical political consequences and will give certain signals to the entire system and partners of Ukraine.
First of all, the president must decide on the next head of his Office. Depending on which candidate will be chosen for this, it will become clear whether the break with Yermak was just a cosmetic repair in OP, or a preparation for a major restructuring of the power system.
As of the beginning of the week, interlocutors of the UP are naming several names for the position of the head of the Office at once. Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal and Deputy Head of the OP for Military Affairs Pavlo Palisa look like a group of the most realistic candidates.
In addition, there is a possibility that the head of the OP may be offered to the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Serhiy Kislytsa, who is currently involved in the negotiation track with the USA. Such an appointment could shift the emphasis of the position of the head of the Office from scandals and insiders to major international work, which could somewhat calm the political situation.
The transfer of Svyridenko’s premiere to the OP is impossible. Firstly, because Yuliya Anatolyivna herself looks at such a move as a downshift, secondly, it would require too great an effort to restart the entire Cabinet.
And the Council, let’s remind you, still has to gather votes for the budget, which was supposed to be voted on last session week, but was afraid to bring it to the hall. As of the beginning of the week, there were still no confirmed votes for the budget. The meeting of the budget committee is scheduled for Monday immediately after the meeting of the monomajority faction, so it can be assumed that there will be a vote on the budget.
In addition, the parliament is preparing to fill vacant positions in the government. As the UP knows, Zelenskyi’s candidacy for the Minister of Justice has already been chosen. Instead of the scandalous Galushchenko, the Ministry of Justice should be headed by the current head of the legal committee of the Rada from “Servant of the People” Denys Maslov.
At the same time, there are still no candidates for the post of Minister of Energy. The previous main candidates, Serhiy Koretsky from Naftogaz and Andriy Gerus from the Servants faction, did not want to head the Ministry of Energy. Therefore, while he is in the status of acting will be managed by Artem Nekrasov. In the meantime, there will be some big recruiting process to find a new minister.
***
“The situation is still shaky. You know, it’s like one of your teeth has deteriorated and started to hurt. And it hurts so much that you can’t chew with any teeth at all. And now this tooth has been pulled out, but no one knows for sure whether it has infected the others and whether they can still work.” – one of the interlocutors of the UP in the Council describes the situation in the government.
The system quickly accepted Andriy Yermak’s dismissal. But in order for truly qualitative changes to take place, Zelensky needs not just to change his name, but to rethink the role of such a body as the Office of the President.
First of all, the OP should abandon the shameful practice of forceful selective pressure on everyone whom someone does not like. Bringing the law enforcement agencies to their senses so that they cease to be “cashiers” and become guardians of the law again is one of the first tasks that the new team in the Office must solve.
It is also necessary to analyze how it happened that the president was driven into an open conflict with most of the leading independent media. Maybe when advisers on working with the media can only offer war and brutal pressure on inconvenient editorials, then they are just bad advisers?
And most importantly, it is necessary to understand that what the president himself very rightly asks society for – unity – is not a constant, it is a daily work.
Roman Romaniuk, Sevgil Musaeva, Mykhailo Tkach