Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was spotted meeting with an American lobbyist and former communication director for U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign and transition team, Bryan Lanza, on Nov. 13.
The photograph of the two men talking at a Kyiv restaurant was published on the Ukrainska Pravda website the following day.
Neither Lanza nor Yermak’s assistant, who was also present at the meeting, has replied to requests for comment.
Photo by Ukrainska Pravda
According to CNN, Lanza is in regular contact with White House officials.
Zelensky’s old friend and aide Yermak has been a key Ukrainian figure in Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the collusion with the Democrats and his political rival, former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden.
Yermak was mentioned in a series of testimonies by former and current U.S. officials and diplomats in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Trump’s alleged abuse of power and was the main contact for talks with the envoys for Trump’s shadow policy in Ukraine, namely, U.S. special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker, U.S. ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, energy secretary Rick Perry and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Yermak met with Giuliani in Madrid in August.
Read more: Who is Zelensky’s chief US negotiator Andriy Yermak
Lanza joined Mercury, a Washington-based lobbying firm with Republican ties, as a managing director in February 2017, months before the firm came under scrutiny for its previous work for a Ukrainian think tank arranged by political consultant Paul Manafort on behalf of disgraced Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager.
In 2012, Manafort hired Mercury along with other public relations firms to lobby for the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, aimed at creating a misleadingly positive image of Yanukovych’s government in the west.
Mercury and another firm, Podesta Group, failed to register as foreign agents in Ukraine, though they did so retrospectively and were not charged with violating foreign lobbying rules. In September 2019, NBC reported that the investigation into Mercury and Podesta was closed.
Manafort was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for tax and bank fraud in connection with his work for Yanukovych.
