The Ukrainian government has proposed to elevate the level of its representation in the Minsk peace negotiations, Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said during an online video conference with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
Ukraine’s delegation to Minsk is led by former President Leonid Kuchma. Under the new proposal, Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov would become his deputy. Additionally, the government would add another official at the level of deputy minister to each of the four sub-groups of the delegation.
The proposal aims to “give a new impulse to Minsk,” Yermak said during the May 4 conversation with former U.S. Ambassador John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
“We believe that the reinforcement of our delegation to Minsk will evoke the same kind of response from the Russian side,” he added. That will make the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, which are mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), “more efficient.”
Yermak’s announcement came as the one surprise in an interview otherwise filled with predictable government talking points.
During over an hour of conversation with Herbst, Yermak discussed Ukraine’s efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19, emphasized the importance of the recent passing of land reform, and alleged that corruption accusations against him were a conspiracy to undermine the government.
Deflecting criticism
In the Zelensky’s administration, Yermak is responsible for negotiations in Minsk. However, his policies have not won him resounding support in Ukrainian society.
On March 13, the chief of staff announced that the negotiating parties had agreed to form an “Advisory Council” that would feature 10 representatives from Ukraine and 10 more from the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. The council would discuss how to implement peace agreements adopted in Minsk.
While Yermak presented the decision as a way to advance the peace process, many saw it as a move to recognize the Russian-backed militants who occupy the territories as legitimate political entities separate from Russia.
Multiple lawmakers in Zelensky’s ruling Servant of the People party condemned the decision. At the behest of Volodymyr Vyatrovych, a lawmaker with the European Solidarity party of former President Petro Poroshenko, a court even required the Security Service of Ukraine to investigate whether Yermak and Kuchma had committed treason under Ukrainian law.
During his May 4 interview, Yermak said that Ukraine would never hold negotiations with representatives of the Russian-backed militants.
However, the Minsk agreements require the Ukrainian government to pass several laws in cooperation with representatives of these territories, he added.
According to Yermak, Ukraine will accept certain groups of people as representatives of the occupied territories: members of local civil society and citizens of Ukraine residing there who have not received Russian citizenship and have not taken part in warfare or “criminal decisions” against Ukraine.
Corruption allegations
On March 29, lawmaker Geo Leros published a number of videos showing a man identified as Denys Yermak, the chief of staff’s younger brother, and his associate Serhiy Shumsky meeting with numerous people and promising to help them get high-level jobs in the Ukrainian government or in state companies in return for illicit payments. The videos were allegedly filmed by their acquaintance, Dmytro Shtanko.
Shumsky and Shtanko later gave an interview to Ukrainian investigative journalism outlet Bihus.info, claiming that Andriy Yermak himself had been part of the corrupt scheme to sell the jobs. The chief of staff never responded to the allegations.
Speaking with the Atlantic Council on May 4, Yermak called the videos “a pre-planned, months-long operation aimed at discrediting Ukraine’s leadership.”
“This scandal proved there’s no corruption in the president’s office,” Yermak said.
He again pointed out that the videos were released one day before a crucial vote in the parliament, where Zelensky’s party holds the majority of seats.
On March 30, the parliament passed a law on lifting the ban on land sales and passed a critical bank law in its first reading. The bank law would make it legally impossible to return nationalized banks to their former owners.
Both laws are requirements for a new aid deal with the International Monetary Fund and saw huge pushback from the opposition.
The bank law is largely seen as a move to prevent billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky from reclaiming his former bank, PrivatBank, which was nationalized in late 2016. After the first reading, lawmakers linked to Kolomoisky, submitted 16,335 amendments in a bid to stall the bill.
Now, the priority for the president’s team is the adoption of the bank law. The parliament may vote for it at the next session on May 12.
