Midnight in Kyiv: sirens, a shaken presidency, and a country holding its breath
The city was still smarting from last night’s explosions when the news rippled through Kyiv: the man who had stood at President Volodymyr Zelensky’s side through the darkest hours of the war had resigned. In a few terse lines and a short video address, Mr Zelensky said his presidential office would be reorganised and that Andriy Yermak had stepped down as head of the presidential office. Minutes later a decree formalised the move.
Outside, people weighed the news between generator hums and conversations in underground shelters. “You don’t trust the lights, and now you don’t trust the people who run the lights,” said one apartment block janitor, who gave his name as Anatoliy. “It’s cold soon. We need answers.”
What happened — and why it matters
The resignation follows a high-profile raid by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office on Mr Yermak’s apartment. Authorities say the operation is connected to an investigation into a suspected kickback network in the energy sector — a probe that allegedly revolves around sums near $100 million. Investigators haven’t made detailed accusations public; Mr Yermak has said he is cooperating.
On the face of it, this is a corruption scandal. But beneath the headlines is a far more combustible mix: war, fragile unity, and diplomacy on the cusp of a potentially decisive moment. The removal of Yermak, until now widely seen as Zelensky’s closest aide and the president’s chief negotiator, comes as the United States is pushing a framework of its own to end the war — a U.S.-led process that Kyiv fears could involve concessions Moscow would exploit.
A gatekeeper falls
Yermak is not an anonymous bureaucrat. A former film producer and copyright lawyer, he rose alongside Zelensky from the world of entertainment to become, to many, the second most powerful person in Ukraine. Colleagues and critics have long described him as the gatekeeper — the man who decided who had the president’s ear.
“He was always the pivot,” said a former senior official who asked not to be named. “If you needed to see the president you had to be vetted through Yermak. He gathered power quickly, and that made enemies.”
That concentration of influence has long frustrated Zelensky’s opponents and some civil society activists who fear that wartime emergency has eroded checks and balances. A March 2025 poll by the Razumkov Centre found that roughly two-thirds of Ukrainians distrusted Yermak — a striking level of public scepticism during a time when unity is emphasized as a survival strategy.
Diplomacy in flux: who will speak for Ukraine?
Diplomatic calendars rarely take raids into account. Yermak had been scheduled to lead Ukrainian negotiators in talks in the United States this weekend. With his exit, Kyiv’s delegation will reportedly be headed by Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council.
“We are preparing to sit at the table with our partners at the end of the week,” a senior official briefed on the matter told a reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. The composition of a negotiating team matters: foreign counterparts look not just for policy clarity but for the authority of the messenger.
A Kyiv-based analyst, Olena Marchenko, warned that the change could complicate Kyiv’s posture. “When a negotiator disappears at a crucial hour, it weakens signalling,” she said. “Even if the substitute is competent, the optics are terrible: opponents will say Ukraine is disunited just when unity is most strategic.”
At home: power lines, protests and public anger
The corruption allegations land against a bleak backdrop. Russia’s campaign has increasingly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure — leaving cities flickering and hospitals running on backups. The idea that a portion of funds meant for strategic energy projects might have been diverted has inflamed public anger.
“We are paying with our warmth and our children’s sleep. To hear money may have been stolen — it cuts deep,” said Oksana, a nurse in the city center who spends her nights on call during blackouts. “People aren’t just angry about money. They’re afraid.”
President Zelensky has tried to respond both to public outrage and to the diplomatic fallout. “If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything,” he told the nation in a recorded message, urging cohesion in the face of manoeuvres he said were intended to make Ukraine falter.
European and international reactions
The European Union cautiously backed the anti-corruption agencies’ actions. “We have respect for the investigations which demonstrate that Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies are doing their work,” a European Commission spokeswoman said. The comment underscores a delicate balancing act: Brussels and Washington have pushed Kyiv to clamp down on graft even as they supply weapons and political cover.
That pressure is mutual. Earlier this year, Zelensky faced criticism — and rare wartime protests — after attempts to alter the independence of NABU and the Specialised Prosecutor’s Office. He later walked back the move under European pressure, illustrating how anti-corruption institutions have become a test of Ukraine’s democratic resilience even in wartime.
Shadow war and the human tally
As these political tremors unfolded, the physical war carried on. Early this morning Kyiv came under a drone attack that wounded seven people and damaged residential buildings and vehicles, officials said. Sirens, shelters, and the smell of burned rooftops have become punctuation marks in daily life.
Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022, has been the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. Estimates vary, but experts say the fighting has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes — a human catastrophe that changes the stakes of any political scandal.
So where does Ukraine go from here?
There are immediate questions: who will take over the presidential office? Can Kyiv present a united front in negotiations? Will the anti-corruption drive hold fast to due process, or will it be weaponised?
There are also bigger ones that cut to the heart of the crisis: How does a democracy at war maintain the rule of law without damaging its capacity to defend itself? How do leaders balance urgent security needs with long-term institutional health? And perhaps most poignantly — how does a nation cling to hope when the lights and the politicians both flicker?
“We are exhausted,” a volunteer who runs a makeshift soup kitchen in a suburb of Kyiv told me. “But we are not broken. We demand honesty from our leaders because we know the cost of lies.”
In the coming days, Kyiv will test both its governance and its resilience. The choice of a new chief of staff and lead negotiator will be closely watched in Washington, Brussels, and Moscow. For ordinary Ukrainians, the immediate concern remains practical: warmth through winter, security for their children, and above all, clarity — who is steering their country through this storm?
