Claims that Andriy Bohdan, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, was resigning spread like wildfire through Ukrainian media on the night of Aug. 1. Now, it looks like they were a hoax.
One or more sources in Zelensky’s office leaked a photo of a resignation letter written by Bohdan to several top news media with no explanation.
The media reported that Bohdan was resigning, causing a frenzy. Bohdan is one of the country’s most powerful officials and the closest ally to Zelensky. Moreover, he has been in office for only two months.
However, the resignation letter looked unconvincing: in the leaked photo, one couldn’t see the date or the signature. The text was unusual, too.
“I ask to be dismissed from the post I hold at my own desire from the moment of desire,” the letter read, an odd phrasing in the world of formulaic official letters.
Bohdan and others at the presidential office ignored the media frenzy, dodging requests for comments. Zelensky spokesperson Iuliia Mendel said she wouldn’t comment on a rumor.
By the morning of Aug. 2, it appeared that “resignation” was a hoax. The journalists were left angry.
Media that shared the resignation letter included Interfax-Ukraine, Novoye Vremya, Ukrainska Pravda, and many others.
President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on it at noon next day, saying that Bohdan, like all the key members of his team, have composed resignation letters in advance. Zelensky said he did not sign Bohdan’s letter.
“All the key people who came with me agreed from the beginning to write resignation letters. If society or the president will feel that this or the other person can’t cope with the tasks set by Ukraine, then at any moment this person, without holding onto the seat, will resign,” Zelensky told the media while on a working trip in Ivano Frankivsk on Aug. 2.
The president said he does not know how the photograph of the resignation letter appeared on the internet. It also wasn’t clear if the leaked letter was the one Bohdan wrote in advance.
Bohdan was standing right next to Zelensky when the President made the statement.
“All of us wrote resignation letters. We aren’t holding on to our seats!” Bohdan then wrote on Facebook, sharing the news story about Zelensky’s statement.
The previous night he denied a comment to Berdynskykh and has not made any statement to Ukrainska Pravda or other media.
But while the hoax was spreading, Bohdan was definitely online and using social media. At 10 p.m. on Aug. 1, he posted a meme about Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, whom the Presidential Office wants to fire from the position of the Kyiv State Administration head. Bohdan and Klitschko are engaged in a public conflict over the issue.
Berdynskyh, who first reported on the photograph of Bohdan’s resignation letter, accused Bohdan, the President and his office of pulling a prank and taking advantage of the media. She called it “an official fake.”
“This is a prank and a mockery of traditional media, and it’s misleading voters. It’s a demonstration (by the president’s officials) to voters: don’t trust anyone, only our Telegram (messenger channel) and Instagram. Post-truth in its pure manifestation,” Berdynskyh wrote in an op-ed before Zelensky gave his statement to the media.
