St Andrew the First-Called Apostle: how Andrii Yermak became Zelenskyy's right-hand man

The story of how Andrii Yermak, Head of the President’s Office, became one of the most influential people in Ukraine can be very clearly illustrated by two photographs.

The first photo is dated 20 May 2019, the day of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's inauguration. Smiling broadly, the newly elected head of state and his team are walking away from the Mariinskyi Palace doors, thrown open by guards of honour, towards the Presidential Administration [soon to be renamed the Office of the President – ed.].

Zelenskyy is flanked by future political leaders: Andrii Bohdan, who would head the President’s Office; Dmytro Razumkov and Ruslan Stefanchuk, the leaders of the Servant of the People party; Serhii Shefir, Zelenskyy's close friend and first aide; Ivan Bakanov, the head of the election headquarters who would soon head the Security Service of Ukraine; and Yurii Kostiuk and Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who were responsible for the media campaign and would do the same at Bankova Street, where the President’s Office is located in Kyiv.

Most of these names were not well known in the political environment at the time, but they had at least appeared in the media during the winter and spring of 2019.

Behind these people, in the front of the photo, another head can be seen, slightly behind: this is Andrii Yermak, wearing sunglasses. 

At the time, even some people in Zelenskyy's campaign HQ did not fully understand who Yermak was. 

For example, on the day of the second round of the presidential elections, the security guards at the Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Centre, where Zelenskyy’s HQ was located, did not want to let Yermak's car through, and it took a long time to find someone on the team who knew him and could arrange for his car to be let in. 

To the wider public his ties to the new government were completely unknown. And to be honest, few people cared.

The second photo of significance for our story is dated 16 June 2024. It shows the leaders and representatives of hundreds of countries and esteemed organisations who had joined in the first meeting of Ukraine’s Global Peace Summit, standing on a large platform against the backdrop of the Swiss mountains.

Right in the centre, blocking out even US Vice President Kamala Harris with his sturdy figure, is Andrii Yermak. 

And no one in the photo is asking: "Who is this?"

Almost everyone else in that first photo of the inauguration day lost their influence and positions long ago.

When you look at these two photos, the only question that remains is how a little-known lawyer and film producer from Kyiv with no political experience became indispensable to President Zelenskyy and one of the most influential people in Ukraine. 

Ukrainska Pravda decided to find an answer to this question, especially given the interest that Western media and leaders have shown in Yermak since the Peace Summit. 

Ukrainska Pravda has held dozens of conversations with influential politicians and officials, staff of the President’s Office and close colleagues of Yermak, its head. Tellingly, none of the sources would talk about Yermak on the record.

How Yermak secured his position

Yermak was familiar with the Zelenskyy family and his production company, Kvartal 95 Studio, long before Zelenskyy became the Ukrainian president. 

They moved in the same show business circles in Kyiv. Yermak was a media lawyer. His business connections with the owner of the luxury boutique Sanahunt – which dressed the Ukrainian elite, including the Kvartal 95 comedians – were useful too.

But that would not have been enough to warrant him taking on a significant role in Zelenskyy's team at the beginning of his political career. There were people with far greater merits who had worked with the future president to secure the election triumph.

After the new leadership came to power, Andrii Yermak was given a rather modest position as one of the president’s aides. Not even the first aide, who is traditionally responsible for the president's schedule and meetings. 

The new position had no clearly defined scope of responsibilities, and this turned out to be an advantage for Yermak.

While the rest of the team was busy dividing up positions, moving into offices and figuring out the complexities of the power vertical, Yermak, who was "just an aide", focused on the only important resource – physical access to Zelenskyy.

"He sometimes used to show off about 'only being here because of his great friend'," recollects one of the members of Zelenskyy’s first team, speaking on condition of anonymity. "For example, we're on a plane, everyone’s sitting close to each other. And Yermak starts practically shouting, 'This is my friend, I’d do anything for him.' Everyone was looking at each other like, 'Why is he shouting? He [Zelenskyy] can hear you.’ 

It was like when you go to a new school, find the coolest senior student and try to befriend him to gain respect."

"He’d try to take up all the space in the room next to the president," says another member of the president's team at the time. 

"For example, there were some international negotiations over the phone. There’s a special room for this purpose, with Zelenskyy's desk and a chair for the Foreign Ministry representative to be close by if needed. And slightly further away in the room, there was a sofa where other people would sit. For instance, Andrii Bohdan used to sit there. At the time, Vadym Prystaiko was the foreign minister, and he was sitting next to Zelenskyy. 

And then Yermak came in, went straight over to the desk and saw there was no room left there. And he just sat down on the edge of the desk next to Zelenskyy. The main thing was to be close to him."

Since Yermak’s duties were boring and burdensome, he had an opportunity to take on only those projects that Zelenskyy personally requested – those that could yield maximum public benefits for the president. 

The first such project for which Yermak was responsible was a prisoner swap.

On 7 September 2019, a jet landed in Boryspil, bringing home people and Ukrainian sailors who had been held captive by the Kremlin. In fact, the moment when the doors of the plane opened and Yermak stepped out marked the start of his rise into big politics. 

After that, there was no doubt that he would be the one to lead on the most difficult challenge that President Zelenskyy had inherited – negotiations with the Russians.

Yermak's involvement in dialogue with Russia began before the swap, and in some ways it came about by accident. 

Ukrainska Pravda has information that Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi was involved in arranging the first semi-secret contact between the new president’s team and the Russian side in 2019. 

It was through Kolomoiskyi’s connections that the first covert visit to Ukraine by the Kremlin negotiators was organised, and later a "return visit" was carried out by Andrii Yermak alone. 

It is still difficult to say why a lowly president’s aide was selected for such a mission. Ukrainska Pravda's sources in the government say that during an early phone call, Zelenskyy suggested Yermak to Putin, who said he had no objection to a person with a "beautiful surname". [Yermak Timofeyevich was a Prince of Siberia and Cossack ataman who began the Russian conquest of Siberia in the 16th century – ed.]

In the autumn of 2019, the Russians took several steps forward, releasing prisoners or returning ships. Ukraine, in turn, agreed to accept the so-called Steinmeier formula.

This was immediately followed by the first protests on Bankova Street – prompted by supporters of the previous president, Petro Poroshenko – and the narrative that Yermak was a Kremlin agent appeared in public discourse. 

In general, all talk of the possibility of serious agreements with the Russians was happening under the radar. 

But then came the Normandy Format summit in Paris [in December 2019] and Zelenskyy and Putin's one-on-one meeting, and everything stalled. The details of those meetings remain unknown, and even Zelenskyy pretends not to remember what those conversations were about.

Whatever happened, Yermak's quick "success story" turned into years of monotonous and fruitless "Minsk meetings".

"Yermak comes from a circle of Kyiv lawyers. It’s the kind of environment where you can negotiate or solve anything. And that was our people’s biggest mistake: they believed that Putin was really open to talk, when actually, the only thing he wanted was for us to give in," a member of the Paris delegation tells Ukrainska Pravda.

Meanwhile a storm was brewing on another foreign policy issue that Yermak had taken over. From the very start of his work at the Office, Yermak had managed to convince Zelenskyy that unconventional diplomacy could work faster and better with then US President Donald Trump. 

One example of that unconventional diplomacy was Yermak's behind-the-scenes meeting with Rudy Giuliani, an attorney close to Trump. News of the meeting was leaked to the American media and caused controversy during the campaign to impeach Trump because of the pressure on Zelenskyy. Fortunately, the situation ended without serious diplomatic consequences for Ukraine.

Yermak was able to sense Zelenskyy's personality type and offered him an alternative view of how to run both domestic policy and foreign negotiations: out with the old, slow structures – in with fast personal communications and equally rapid decisions. 

Gradually, Yermak's presence around Zelenskyy grew to the point where this lowly aide Andrii Yermak was the person who would, like the apostle, be called first, and not the then Head of the President’s Office,  Andrii Bohdan.

The President’s producer

Managing the President’s Office, and the entire power structure, means having a huge number of people under your command. 

Significantly, neither Zelenskyy nor Yermak, when he became the new head of the President’s Office, had ever dealt with large teams of subordinates in their lives before Zelenskyy became president. The need to somehow manage all these departments, directorates, secretariats and the rest was equally new to them. 

Bohdan was the one who loved signing papers and making phone calls to officials, judges or MPs. He was always dragging around a mountain of documents to be signed and forcing Zelenskyy – sometimes in a very rude manner – to sign yet more decrees and orders in the presence of other people.

This didn’t come naturally to Yermak. What he liked wasn’t signing papers, but being close to the president and fully engaging in projects that were of interest to him.

It just so happened that the two main offices on Bankova Street were occupied by an actor who was used to being a star and a producer whose job it was to be a star-maker. 

For an actor, there is no more important person than the producer who enables them to be creative and not have to think about mundane things. And vice versa, the greater the heights a star reaches, the more outstanding their producer is considered to be.

Almost all of Ukrainska Pravda’s sources in the government and in Zelenskyy and Yermak’s inner circle describe the relationship between them as a star-producer union.

"As head of the Office, Yermak is not as good as most of his predecessors," a former official who worked for a long time at the Bankova Street administration tells Ukrainska Pravda. "If you’re the head of the Office, you can’t spend all your time with the president. Then all the administrative work just stalls. But everything came together here, because Zelenskyy, just like Yermak, doesn't really care about any district state administrations or problems in, say, Ternopil. 

But in terms of closeness to his chief, in terms of concentration of resources and power, Yermak has no equal. There have never been such influential people on Bankova Street," the official admits.

In the four years of his tenure, Andrii Yermak has become literally irreplaceable to Zelenskyy. This was especially evident after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

If you think about it, Yermak has been responsible for most of the big foreign policy stories in one way or another: sanctions groups, security guarantees and bilateral agreements with Ukraine’s partners, the Peace Summit, bringing abducted children home, prisoner swaps and so on.

"The Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the war are purely the president's agenda. He decides himself who to invite, what topics to focus on, what to decide, and who to talk to. But the whole diplomatic track is an area where Yermak would be physically impossible to replace even if he [Zelenskyy] wanted to," a senior official explains.

Yermak has cultivated such a vast network of international contacts that he has become indispensable to Zelenskyy in matters of international communications. Ultimately, it was the president himself who gave the head of his Office carte blanche to work with foreign partners.

It was Yermak who, along with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, developed the Kyiv Security Compact on international guarantees for Ukraine.

The group, led by Yermak and former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, is actively involved in implementing sanctions against Russia.

Together with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, Yermak chairs the International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of War.

All while meeting with the Pope and finding time for a Zoom call with Mauricio Sulaimán, President of the World Boxing Council, to discuss the Peace Summit.

But the key point that Yermak has demonstrated to the president is that his personal informal contacts with world leaders’ advisors can achieve a far greater impact than the efforts of the entire Foreign Ministry.

The Head of the President’s Office is constantly emailing Jake Sullivan, the influential US National Security Adviser, bypassing official intergovernmental channels. 

One of Yermak's closest aides puts it this way: "People often say Yermak controls everything in domestic politics, that he appoints everyone. But trust me, that's not what drives him at all. Organising the Peace Summit, now that's cool – something you can work on for months. Appointing some bureaucrat? Not cool. That's not where he wants to spend his time."

Another role Yermak single-handedly performs in the government is described by a current senior official as "status guardian".

"All the conflicts that have arisen within the government in recent years are directly related to someone encroaching on a larger piece of authority or media presence than their 'status' entitles them to," the government team member explains.

"From the officials' point of view, your status is determined by your position. But for Yermak, for example, ten ministers have ten different statuses. If you talk to a Saudi prince, you get +10 added to your status, and you can do much more. But if you're just some regular minister – just sit there and keep quiet."

This "status system" is a kind of informal league table. You can secure additional support for the country, bring in assistance, have unique contacts – these are things that allow you to advance in the status system.

But if you try to boost your own rating, communicate with embassies without authorisation, conduct your own international initiatives, or, God forbid, even get in touch with Poroshenko, that won't go unnoticed.

"Yermak rarely gets involved in the substance of specific reforms. But you have to go and see him, seek approval, and explain what you're doing, who needs to be consulted, and who’s involved. Don't promise anything to the IMF or donors without clearance from the President’s Office – then you can reform as much as you want. It's not about the substance, but about maintaining status," says one member of the government, explaining how the system operates.

The only person whose high-profile media activity doesn't bother Zelenskyy and Yermak is Yermak himself. But even there he maintains his own "ranking".

"You need to understand that many of the projects that Yermak is leading were actually devised by Zelenskyy himself. During the early weeks of the invasion, it was obvious how the president himself was bigging up Yermak: 'Look, you're doing this, but others are getting the credit. We need to package this somehow, I need to talk to you about this, let's come up with some format for you.' And honestly, no one comes up with formats better than Zelenskyy," recalls one of the officials who lived in Zelenskyy's bunker.

Andrii Yermak’s Office

After he was appointed Head of the President’s Office in February 2020, Yermak faced the fact that the office was just not set up to accommodate the new leader.

Some people were long-time close friends of the president, while others believed they had personally done more for Zelenskyy than Yermak had. To complicate matters further, many of them, such as Kyrylo Tymoshenko and Andrii Smyrnov, had been brought into the team by Andrii Bohdan, the previous Head of the President’s Office.

Indeed, some of the perks of Bohdan’s legacy remained. When Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power, the President's Office had been transformed into the main centre of political power. The rest of the state machinery worked to meet the requests of the head of state.

The most important task facing the newly appointed head of the President’s Office was to align the processes on Bankova Street to fit his vision. Managing the Office gave him influence over all state processes.

Yermak's appointment coincided with a major overhaul in the power structure. Within just three weeks, the first government under Zelenskyy, led by Oleksii Honcharuk, resigned. The Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) also dismissed the Prosecutor General, Ruslan Riaboshapka. Zelenskyy’s team associated both of them with Andrii Bohdan.

Later, after months of simmering resentment and a few glasses of wine, Andrii Bohdan himself argued in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Hordon that the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi was behind all these resignations.

The only body that was not overhauled in the spring of 2020 was the President’s Office. The outbreak of the Covid pandemic forced the government to focus on other equally important matters.

However, the lull on Bankova Street didn't last long. By summer, tensions had begun to escalate between Andrii Yermak and Serhii Trofimov, his first deputy, who was responsible for regional policy. Trofimov was a former executive producer at Kvartal 95 and was close to Zelenskyy's family. 

Yermak systematically kept Trofimov away from the president, pointing out his mistakes and mocking him in Zelenskyy's presence. Within six months, the president had quietly, and without further explanation, dismissed his former executive producer from Bankova Street.

"Andrii constantly berated Serhii, saying he was lazy and didn't work enough with the heads of regional administrations and regional elites. Then there were suspicions that Trofimov was making money at the State Architecture and Construction Inspectorate, that some guy was taking money for him there. So gradually, a negative image of him formed in the president's mind," one former member of Zelenskyy's team recalls.

At the same time, Serhii Shefir, one of Zelenskyy’s closest friends and former business partners, began to drift away from the president.

"Shefir was the oldest one of us here. He couldn't be bothered to stay late, didn't want to delve into political matters. He was the type to drink wine, share some wisdom occasionally, meet with oligarchs. But he didn't much like dealing with day-to-day tasks. Compared with him, Andrii is the complete opposite – always there, always engaged," former members of Zelenskyy's team recollect.

Overall, a dozen current officials mentioned that berating people is one of Yermak's favourite tactics when he wants to get rid of someone.

Zelenskyy doesn't really embrace old formal institutions; for him, every task must be personalised. If the president likes a person and sees potential in them, he may entrust them with something important. However, once the emotional connection fades, that person loses first the president's trust and then their position.

"In the beginning, the president himself would notice that something was going on. For example, he might meet with someone from the team and ask something like, 'Why is Andrii always criticising you?' But later there was no longer time for that, and people were simply moved aside," recalls one team member who was "moved aside" in precisely this manner.

"People send screenshots of quotes or public statements to Yermak. He might show the president, like, 'Did you notice what that person said?' and roll his eyes. Or he points out that someone has expensive shoes and jokes about it with Zelenskyy. In this way, a certain opinion is gradually formed in the president's mind, which he constantly reinforces," another former member of the president's team explains.

"Tymoshenko was berated for his luxury lifestyle, Trofimov over money: 'he takes [bribes]'. Shefir was 'out of it', 'the old man’s gone crazy', and also 'he's with [Ukrainian oligarch Rinat] Akhmetov', 'he made a deal with [former Interior Minister Arsen] Avakov'. Someone’s always guilty of something," the source adds.

Another behind-the-scenes tactic that Yermak uses to resolve personnel issues is creating "doubles".

For example, in 2020, he tried to sideline Kyrylo Tymoshenko from media affairs. In contrast to him, Yermak brought in political strategist Mykhailo Podoliak as an advisor, who essentially duplicated Tymoshenko's tasks.

Tymoshenko was saved from a speedy dismissal by the president's Large Construction project [a national project launched by Zelenskyy in March 2020 to develop high-quality infrastructure in Ukraine, encompassing roads, schools, kindergartens, emergency medical centres and sports stadiums – ed.]. Yermak's deputy quickly switched his focus to roads and handed all media work over to Podoliak.

Eventually, Tymoshenko was indeed dismissed during the full-scale invasion in 2023, when he resigned following a series of journalistic investigations into his luxury lifestyle.

Similarly, as a contrast to Andrii Smyrnov, the Deputy Head of the President’s Office who initially supervised both law enforcement and the courts, Yermak appointed as his deputy Oleh Tatarov, the controversial former head of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the era of [former pro-Russian president Viktor] Yanukovych. Tatarov was given responsibilities related to the law enforcement system. The relationship between Smyrnov and Tatarov became increasingly tense until spring 2024, when Smyrnov was finally dismissed from the President’s Office.

In fairness it should be noted that most of the issues for which former colleagues were berated were genuine.

"You also need to understand Zelenskyy's personality type," says one member of the government, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He’s very energetic, and he requires the same rapid action from his team. So he doesn't need to be particularly worked up to fire someone; the president himself is ready to take a sword to people who can't keep up the pace. That's why the head of the President’s Office needs to dampen Zelenskyy's zeal more often to keep his people in place."

The main problem for the now former representatives of the President’s Office was that they did not want to accept the new unwritten rules: a clear hierarchy, don’t pester the president, report on your actions and, most importantly, don’t shine in the media.

That is why Tymoshenko, who was sometimes on TV more than Zelenskyy was, could not stay in this system. And why Shefir, who had been communicating directly with Zelenskyy since their days making student comedy shows together, felt cramped in this new framework.

It’s also why Tatarov is the perfect manager for the president's team – he only leaves the Office to go home or to the gym, doesn't go on TV or radio, and secures approval for his every move in whatever area he is entrusted with. It doesn't matter what activists, the media or the US State Department say about him, even if it’s accusations of monopolising the work of law enforcement agencies.

Yermak's team

During his tenure at the President’s Office, Yermak has replaced every one of the deputies who came to Bankova Street in 2019.

To fill vacant positions, you need a decent pool of talent. With no previous experience in public administration, where did Andrii Yermak get new people from?

There are several ways to skyrocket to the top in Yermak's team.

The first is to go through people Yermak used to work with or crossed paths with in business.

This category of people includes Roza Tapanova, director of the Babyn Yar National Historical and Cultural Centre, who sits on the supervisory boards of Ukrnafta and Oschadbank.

Tapanova used to work at Yermak's law firm, International Law Company LLC, and she is still one of the people he trusts the most.

The same goes for Andrii Pyshnyi, Chairman of Ukraine’s National Bank, whom Yermak has known for over a decade, even helping him set up the NGO Vidchui (Feel), which supports people with hearing impairments.

Mykola Tochytskyi, the new Deputy Head of the President’s Office for International Affairs, was in Yermak's class at the Kyiv Institute of International Affairs.

Yermak has known another of his deputies, Oleksii Kuleba, for years. In 2019, Yermak lobbied for Kuleba to become the director of the Urban Improvement Department at Kyiv City Council, and later the first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration.

During the full-scale war, Kuleba was promoted to Head of Kyiv Oblast. When Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who had been in charge of regional policy at Bankova Street, was fired from the Office in the summer of 2023, Kuleba quickly took over the vacancy as deputy head of the President’s Office.

"Andrii trusts Liosha [Oleksii Kuleba – ed.] a lot. Previously, when Yermak flew anywhere on an official trip, he never left an acting head of the President’s Office in his place during his absence, even though this is normal practice and should be the case. But recently, Andrii has started leaving Oleksii as the acting head, and this is a clear indication of their good relationship," a former senior official in the President’s Office tells Ukrainska Pravda.

The second category is staff recommended to Yermak by team members who have earned his trust.

"If you've worked with him for a while, have got results and earned his trust, then you can suggest some people yourself. But you’ll be responsible for them as well," sources close to Yermak told Ukrainska Pravda.

Two examples are Iryna Mudra and Olena Kovalska, who are currently deputy heads of the President’s Office. They both worked in prominent roles at Oschadbank at different times and were recommended to Yermak's team by Andrii Pyshnyi.

Similarly, Yermak's assistant Daria Zarivna suggests candidates for various sanctions groups or media projects.

Incidentally, Zarivna herself is gradually beginning to play the notional role of Yermak for Yermak himself. She manages all the major projects that he is involved in, from bringing back abducted children from Russia, to the Grain from Ukraine Initiative, to the Peace Summit.

Zarivna has adopted many of the same behaviours as her boss, seeking to be indispensable and emphasising her loyalty, sometimes to the point of flattery.

Some of the government officials said that sometimes it even looks touching when Zarivna considerately suggests something to her boss at meetings or helps him to find better wording.

So there is no doubt that she can compete with many of his deputies in terms of influence at the Office.

The third category of "Yermak's people" is market experts.

This includes, for example, Rostyslav Shurma, a deputy head of the President’s Office who once ran the Zaporizhstal steel plant, and Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin.

They had no connection with Yermak before being appointed, but he was prepared to give them some freedom in exchange for total loyalty and results.

But if either of these conditions are not met, Yermak will do all he can to get rid of these people – as happened, for example, to Zelenskyy's former favourite Oleksandr Kubrakov, who became too "autonomous".

Essentially, the rights to recruit human resources for the entire government have now been outsourced to the head of the President’s Office. There is even a joke on the sidelines of the government that Zelenskyy decides which of Yermak's people to appoint.

Sometimes this makes for very revealing situations, such as when the third defence minister in a row is appointed under Yermak’s patronage. Andrii Taran, who was proposed by Yermak in 2020, was replaced in autumn 2021 by Oleksii Reznikov, who worked with Yermak in the Minsk group.

Eventually, after several procurement scandals, the Defence Ministry was entrusted to Rustem Umierov, who became close to Yermak during peace talks in Istanbul and while working with the Persian Gulf states.

The figure of Yermak can also be seen lurking behind most other high-profile government appointments. Yermak or people from his inner circle have been associated with the appointments of such people as:

• Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin;
• Vitalii Koval, Chairman of the State Property Fund;
• Pavlo Kyrylenko, Chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee;
• Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council.

It is also interesting to observe the expansion of Yermak's influence on [Prime Minister Denys] Shmyhal's Cabinet. Some members of the Cabinet, such as First Deputy Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko or Ministers Kamyshin and Umierov, were appointed with Yermak’s involvement. Some of them he "recruits", like Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna or Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko. Some members of the government listen to Bankova's wishes out of gratitude for being appointed as acting minister.

Prime Minister Shmyhal himself tries to demonstrate "teamwork" as much as possible, but doubts remain regarding his complete loyalty to the President’s Office due to his close ties with Davyd Arakhamiia, leader of the Servant of the People faction.

Rumours of plans to replace the prime minister are constantly circulating behind the scenes as a result. Recently there has even been talk of Yermak himself becoming prime minister.

However, there are also reasonable doubts about whether Yermak would want to leave the president and projects like the Peace Summit to plunge into the routine work of government.

*   *   *

During his tenure, Andrii Yermak has become the most influential person in the government. He is involved in the most important processes and negotiations, and his people are appointed to key positions.

Political opponents, activists and the media talk of the usurpation of power into the hands of the head of the President’s Office. In essence, Ukraine has an unelected ultra-influential official who takes decisions in almost every area of public life.

But is it really time to regard Andrii Yermak as a Ukrainian version of Johann Struensee or Grigori Rasputin?

To answer this question, we need to understand whether Yermak's power is truly his.

When he started at the President’s Office, Yermak liked to say: "I came with the president, and I’ll leave with the president." This could be seen as a form of political coquetry or an additional pledge of loyalty. But it’s also worth looking at it literally.

Yermak may like to run the state, but he stands in the shadow of the president. Is he capable of becoming an independent political figure? This is highly questionable.

In fact, every opinion poll without exception over the last few years has shown that the ultra-influential Andrii Yermak still lacks what makes an ordinary person a politician: support from the sole holder of power – the people.

No matter what important things the head of the President’s Office does, voters stubbornly refuse to support him – the fact that 61% distrust him speaks for itself.

President Zelenskyy may delegate some of his power to Yermak for a time, but what he cannot transfer to him is his popularity. So the head of the President’s Office has power for as long as he has the president.

Making a star and being one are two completely different things.

Roman Romaniuk and Roman Kravets, Ukrainska Pravda

Translation: Yelyzaveta Khodatska, Myroslava Zavadska, Sofiia Kohut

Editing: Teresa Pearce