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Ukrainian authorities have issued an official notice of suspicion to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff as part of a corruption investigation that has engulfed the president’s inner circle, anti-corruption agencies told the FT.
Officials from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo) on Monday served Andriy Yermak with the formal notice that he was a suspect in the deepening corruption probe.
A notice of suspicion is a procedural step short of a court charge but a precursor to formal prosecution.
Confronted by journalists in Kyiv amid searches of his property, Yermak said he would “comment after the investigation is over”.
A senior official in the president’s office said the notice of suspicion was “the beginning of a long legal process [and] everything will end in court, so we’ll see”.
The development will raise concerns for Zelenskyy at a crucial moment for Ukraine, as the president seeks to reassure European allies that his government is tackling entrenched corruption as it pursues EU membership. It also comes as Zelenskyy pushes for support from a sceptical US president to press Russia into peace talks.
The raid follows a series of searches linked to a major corruption investigation known as “Operation Midas” that began last year and which has engulfed Zelenskyy’s administration. Several close allies including Yermak resigned or were fired in November.
The probe also prompted an arrest warrant for Zelenskyy’s former business partner, Timur Mindich, who has since fled the country. He has denied the charges.
Zelenskyy once relied so heavily on Yermak, the closest member of his inner circle, that the two were nearly inseparable. Yermak was often said to behave as if he were president. Ukrainian and western officials sometimes quipped that he was the country’s unelected vice-president because he drafted peace plans, handpicked cabinet officials and overrode military generals in taking battlefield decisions.
The widening corruption case centres on the state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, and is the largest probe of Zelenskyy’s seven-year tenure.
Among other suspects are former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and former energy and justice minister Herman Halushchenko, who were both close allies of Zelenskyy before they were sacked last year as Nabu and Sapo closed in on them. The men have denied the charges.
Nabu and Sapo allege the suspects were part of a “criminal group” that channelled some $10.4mn to Chernyshov to construct neighbouring luxury homes outside Kyiv, including one reportedly intended for Yermak.
Nabu and Sapo said late on Monday in Kyiv that “urgent investigative actions” were under way.
Yermak orchestrated an attempt by the president’s office last July to strip Nabu and Sapo of their independence by placing them under control of the Zelenskyy-appointed prosecutor-general.
The move against the agencies, which were born out of the 2013-14 Euromaidan revolution as part of reform to help Ukraine secure EU membership, sparked public condemnation and nationwide protests. The president’s office quickly backtracked.
This article was amended to more accurately reflect the parameters of the probe.
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