Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s newly-appointed chief of staff, said that reaching peace with Russia will be his main priority in his new role.
Yermak addressed his goals at a press briefing at the President’s Office in Kyiv on Feb. 12.
“There is nothing more important than stopping the war, than stopping people from dying, than returning our people home,” Yermak said.
Among the other priorities, Yermak named bringing investment to Ukraine and filling vacant regional governor positions.
“I want the (presidential) office to be successful and work without conflict,” said Yermak, who reportedly had a strained relationship with his predecessor, Andriy Bohdan.
Yermak’s peace plan
Before taking office, Yermak served as Zelensky’s top aide. His main focus was foreign relations, but he treaded into domestic affairs as well.
He oversaw two prisoner exchanges with Russia and its proxies in 2019, which brought a total of 101 Ukrainian captives home. Yermak also accompanied Zelensky to the Normandy Format meeting, held between the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia, in Paris on Dec. 9.
During the meeting, Ukraine reiterated its agreement to implement the so-called Steinmeier Formula, which would give wider self-governance to the occupied regions of Donbas in return for holding local elections under Ukrainian law.
Yermak says Ukraine is ready to implement its side of the bargain.
Ukrainian local elections are set to take place in October, and Zelensky has said during multiple public events that he hopes the elections will take place in all parts of Ukraine, including the Russian-occupied Donbas.
“It would be logical if (local) elections were to take place in Donbas, simultaneously with the rest of Ukraine,” said Yermak. “We have a clear plan on what should be done for these elections to be held in late October.”
Yermak reiterated what Zelensky has long been saying: that the elections must take place under Ukrainian law and there shouldn’t be a foreign military presence in Donbas during the elections.
However, he didn’t say whether the administration will continue insisting on Ukraine taking control of its eastern border before the election.
“Some compromises are possible,” Yermak said.
Concerning further prisoner exchanges, Yermak said that the office is working to bring back those still held in captivity in Russia and in the eastern Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.
Yermak’s appointment appears to be part of a reboot of communications between the presidential administrations of Ukraine and Russia.
Dmitry Kozak, the Russian official overseeing the previous prisoner exchange, was appointed third deputy head of President Vladimir Putin’s admiration on Jan. 24. Putin’s spokesman said on Feb. 11 that Kozak will oversee Russia’s dealings with Ukraine.
“I haven’t spoken to him after his and my appointment, but I’m looking forward to talking to him in the future,” said Yermak.
On Feb. 11, the same day that Yermak was appointed chief of staff, Ukraine changed its representative in the Minsk trilateral talks, which are held in the Belarusian capital between Ukraine, Russia and representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Crimea
Yermak said he didn’t discuss restarting water supplies to Crimea, which stopped in 2015, in exchange for Russia ending its war in the Donbas.
Recently, the idea for such a compromise has been circulating in Ukraine. It has received a mostly negative reaction, as many view reconnecting Crimea to Ukraine’s water supply systems a surrender to Russia and recognition of its rights to the illegally annexed peninsula.
But on Feb. 10, David Arakhamia, head of the pro-presidential Servant of the People party that dominates parliament, backed the idea of the controversial compromise in a TV interview.
“It’s the personal opinion of Arakhamia,” Yermak said.
Regional policy
The second issue raised by Yermak during his short briefing was regional policy. According to him, the office “will form a team of governors who will be appointed in the near future.”
Only two of Ukraine’s 24 oblasts are currently missing governors. Yermak didn’t say whether any of the sitting governors will be replaced.
In Ukraine, the governors are appointed by the president. Zelensky has had a hard time finding people to serve as governors since his inauguration on May 20. After firing most governors appointed by his predecessor Petro Poroshenko, Zelensky left seven oblasts with acting heads for over three months, while other governors appointed by Zelensky left within a few months and had to be replaced.
Additionally, Yermak himself was reported to have overseen a number of regional appointments, sparking a conflict with his predecessor Bohdan, who was in charge of domestic issues. The Ukrainska Pravda news site reported that Yermak picked the governors of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, the sensitive regions that are partly occupied by Russian-led militants.
Moreover, Yermak reportedly brokered a deal between Zelensky and former heavyweight boxing champion and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Zelensky’s administration sought to replace Klitschko as the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, a post he has held since 2014. Bohdan led the campaign against Klitschko, openly calling for his resignation. But it came to nothing.
Ukrainian media and political observers claimed that Klitschko went around Bohdan and made peace through Yermak, then just an aide to Zelensky.
Enjoying the moment
During his first press conference, Yermak wasn’t shy about taking a few jabs at his predecessor.
He started the briefing by thanking the media for their work. Bohdan famously loathed the media and said the administration can speak to Ukrainians directly.
“If you didn’t watch us and didn’t point out our mistakes, we wouldn’t be improving,” Yermak said. “Government can’t excel without the media, let’s admit it.”
Additionally, Yermak emphasized that no one will be allowed to use so-called “telephone law,” a practice of directly telling government officials what to do, sometimes in contravention of the law.
The most recent instance of this practice was an alleged conversation between Bohdan and the former head of the State Bureau of Investigations, Roman Truba, recorded and leaked online in November. In the recording, a man sounding like Truba talks on the phone and takes orders from someone he addresses as Andriy Iosipovich, using Bohdan’s name and patronymic.
Truba denied the authenticity of the tapes, while Bohdan didn’t directly deny a conversation with Truba, but said such behavior wasn’t practiced by the administration.
