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Some Ukrainian and Western officials say that suspicion of the president’s closest aide is undermining Zelensky’s authority and raising doubts about who is accountable for decisions: Zelensky or his appointed lieutenant who often tweets in emojis.
Several officials declined to speak about Yermak at all, fearing repercussions.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who co-chairs with Yermak the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions, said Yermak fills many roles.
“In some ways, he’s the de facto prime minister, foreign minister and chief of staff,” McFaul said. “I know how everybody complains that about Yermak. … But I would say the flip side is it is war. And I think he’s pretty damn effective at his job.”
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No political experience
A former lawyer and film producer, Yermak — like Zelensky — had no training to run a country, let alone one targeted for destruction. Yet that is his role. Once viewed as Zelensky’s shadow, Yermak is now seen as part of a ruling duopoly.
Even Yermak recognizes that plenty of people just don’t want him around.
“Why again this Yermak here? Why again?” he said in a recent interview, mimicking his critics. His not-so-patient reply: “I’m working,” he insists, “on behalf … of the president.”
Yermak’s critics describe him as pugnacious and domineering. Some accuse him of being a Russian agent — now a common insult in Ukraine — which he and those close to him vehemently deny.
Yermak, who at 52 is six years older than Zelensky, was born and raised in Kyiv to a Ukrainian father and a Russian-born mother from Saint Petersburg — a fact he defends in part by showing a photo of her with a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian trident tattoo on her upper arm. She got it on her 77th birthday. His father served in a high-ranking role in the Soviet Embassy in Kabul, which has fueled speculation that his family maintains ties to Russia and its security services.
Yermak has one sibling, a brother, Denys, 45, who was accused of being caught on video trying to use his family ties to sell positions in Zelensky’s administration. Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau later quietly closed the case and Yermak claimed the entire ordeal was an “information operation” against his brother, who is now serving in Ukraine’s military.
“No one likes to mention this,” he said of his brother’s role on the front line.
Yermak’s office did not name his brother’s specific brigade but said he serves in a unit with foreign volunteers, “which takes an active part in combat.”
Yermak earned a master’s degree in law at Ukraine’s Taras Shevchenko National University and worked as an entertainment lawyer and a film producer. He said he turned down political opportunities before Zelensky because he never believed in “the people in gray suits.” Even now, he claimed, “I don’t think about my political future” — an assertion his critics dispute.
He said he cannot remember when he met Zelensky — but they have been friends for around 15 years. Zelensky tapped other friends from his film production company to join him in politics including Serhiy Trofimov, who served as a deputy head of the presidential office; Ivan Bakanov, who was the head of Ukraine’ssecurity service; and Serhiy Shefir, an assistant to the president.
All were dismissed since 2022 in what is widely seen as a Yermak-led purge. “I’m sad this is what it’s come to,” one former official said.
Whether Yermak engineered it or not, Zaluzhny — the highly popular general who was viewed as Zelensky’s most formidable political threat in any reelection campaign — was removed from his post and named ambassador to Britain.
“The president has no entourage. There is one person who influences the president’s decisions,” the longtime Ukrainian official said. “There is no one else.”
“Yermak’s influence is monopolistic,” the official added, calling it a “tragedy.”
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