Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fired his chief of staff Tuesday in a personnel shake-up affecting central figures on the Ukrainian side of the events leading to the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.The shuffle in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, offered fresh evidence of how deeply entangled Ukrainian and American politics have become.
The new chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, negotiated last summer with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as Giuliani and Trump pressured Ukraine to start investigations that would benefit Trump politically. Yermak, who at the time was a senior presidential adviser on foreign policy, has sought to maintain good ties with the Trump administration.
The man he replaced, Andriy Bohdan, a former lawyer for oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, reportedly became chief of staff last year over Giuliani’s objections. Giuliani was at odds with Kolomoisky at the time but later pivoted to working with Kolomoisky associates in his search for evidence against Trump’s political enemies.
Yet the shake-up appears to have more to do with Ukraine’s internal workings — specifically, a growing clash between Zelenskiy’s administration and Kolomoisky, a billionaire with oil, television and real estate holdings who was implicated in a major banking scandal.
Yermak’s name popped up often in the House impeachment investigation. In talks and text message exchanges with him, Giuliani and U.S. diplomats sought an announcement of Ukrainian investigations, including one into former Vice President Joe Biden and his family, while withholding a White House visit and military assistance.
Yermak later sought to smooth relations during the impeachment hearings. After Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, testified that he had told Yermak that military aid was “likely” linked to the announcement of investigations — a key accusation in the Democrats’ case — Yermak told a journalist he didn’t remember this part of the conversation. The comment bolstered Trump’s defense.
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