Ukraine - The Battle Over Zelenski's Fate Is Still in Balance
An intense information operation has been launched to remove Ukraine's (former) President Vladimir Zelenski from office. Behind it are a cabal of Ukrainian opposition figures in coordination which western media and parts of the Trump administration.
The current campaign follows a earlier one which was directed against Zelenski's main advisor and head of the office of the president Andrei Yermak.
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Politico.eu introduced Yermak:
The game plan of Zelenskyy's powerful chief of staff - Politico.eu, Jun 3 2025
The once little-known lawyer and B-movie producer — now in the thick of triangular peace diplomacy with the Americans and Russians — is always reverently loyal to his boss. In an interview with POLITICO last year, he referred to him glowingly as the “president of the people.” What else could he say? Yermak has ridden Zelenskyy’s coattails to become the second-most-powerful figure in Ukraine — even a co-equal.
Then the U.S. version Politico.com set out to destroy him:
The Ukrainian official Washington loves to hate - Politico.com, Jun 19 2025
Speaking to allies in private, Yermak has accused Trump administration officials of being Russian assets, according to the first person familiar with the visit, including Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has met with Putin four times as Trump seeks to cajole Moscow to the negotiating table.People familiar with the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and Kyiv’s backers in Washington fear that the friction wrought by Yermak could quickly spread to undermine his country’s standing with its most vital partner.
But Yermak survived the public relations onslaught and even managed to increase his control in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s political infighting gets nasty (archived) - Economist, Jul 6 2025
As Trump starves it of arms, there is turmoil inside the government
Three developments in June set the tone. On June 23rd, a deputy prime minister, Oleksiy Chernyshov—once tipped as a future prime minister—became the most senior Ukrainian politician ever charged with corruption. On government business in Europe, he initially delayed returning, creating the absurd image of a minister for repatriating Ukrainians planning his own self-exile.
At around the same time, the cabinet was warned of an imminent reshuffle, and the probable appointment of a new prime minister, the 39-year-old Yulia Svyrydenko. And a renewed attempt was made to remove Ukraine’s fiercely independent spy chief, Kyrylo Budanov—though it ended in failure, at least for now.
Multiple sources identify the shadowy hand of Andriy Yermak, who runs the presidential office but in reality is an unelected chief minister in all but name, as instrumental in all three plays.
Yermak survived and fought back successfully. But now the fight has turned directly against his boss or sidekick Vladimir Zelenski to whom he is bound by money and fate.
Within hours of each other the British outlets Financial Times and Spectator fired a full broadside against him.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused of authoritarian slide after anti-corruption raids (archived) - Financial Times, Jul 18 2025
Politicians, activists and diplomats accuse Ukraine’s leader of favouring loyalists and using wartime powers against critics