🕴️ The head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, increasingly performs the functions of the head of state — writes Financial Times. He oversees peace initiatives, diplomacy, and influences government appointments, while the prime minister and military often report directly to him.
Source: Bukvy
🌐 Yermak has a team of about 20 advisers who have access to intelligence, meetings with leaders of other countries, and national security briefings. Such a centralized model of power is atypical for Western democracies — the publication notes.
⚖️ According to FT, no important decision is made without his involvement: “no one reaches the president without him.” He is called Zelensky’s “right hand” and sometimes even “vice president.”
💥 Critics believe that Yermak is an “unelected tsar” who undermines the balance of powers, manipulates courts, blocks anti-corruption cases, and compiles lists of “enemies” for the National Security and Defense Council.
🧩 His allies call Yermak the “green cardinal” — a new type of Ukrainian leader combining the roles of president, prime minister, and chief diplomat.
🎯 The appointment of Yuliia Svyrydenko as prime minister only confirmed Yermak’s influence. One Ukrainian minister admitted that the government fears speaking about him because “everyone’s fate is decided by Yermak.”
🪖 FT notes that Yermak also had full influence over military decisions, including regarding Bakhmut in 2022. The decision to hold the city was made not by the military, but by political leadership. Commanders consider this a “political maneuver disguised as heroism.”
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