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Andriy Borisovych Yermak

Andrii Yermak is a complex and interesting person. Throughout his life, he took risks and took on new areas of work. And he was almost always successful. Having come to power with Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Yermak sees himself as the vice president of Ukraine. Every achievement of the assistant was not just a job, but a fulfillment of Zelensky's personal request. The president saw Yermak's results immediately and automatically considered them very important. Because he himself set the problems.

Marcin Jedrysiak noted "during the five years of Volodymyr Zelensky’s rule in Ukraine, with virtually all power concentrated in the hands of the head of state and the Office of the President of Ukraine (OPU) which he controls. The Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) and the Cabinet of Ministers have been marginalised, and the most important decisions in the country are made at Bankova Street, where the president and his administration are based.... Western partners are also showing signs of fatigue with Yermak. ... The lack of public trust in Yermak suggests that he would struggle to emerge as an independent political leader."

Maxim Tucker, wrote June 07 2024 in The Times [London] "As Zelensky’s first elected term drew to a close, senior government, military, law enforcement and diplomatic sources, many of whom requested anonymity, expressed alarm at his growing dependence on Andriy Yermak, his chief of staff, who is accused of amassing personal power and usurping democratic processes.... Some sources went so far as to describe him as the “de facto head of state” or “Ukraine’s vice-president”.... Military officials, meanwhile, have accused Yermak, 52, of keeping General Valery Zaluzhny away from the president, and eventually orchestrating his dismissal as head of the armed forces in February. Yermak, they claim, considered Zaluzhny a rival to his authority.... The Kremlin has sought to seize on Yermak’s increased influence, allegations of corruption and the expiry of Zelensky’s term of office to produce false propaganda, claiming Ukraine has become an autocracy. "

Andriy Borisovych Yermak was born on November 21, 1971 in the city of Kyiv. Andrii is is single, he has no children. He has a brother Denys, 8 years younger. Yermak's mother, Russian Maria Oleksandrivna, married Boris Mykhailovych, a native of Kyiv, in 1971. In the same year, the couple had a son, Andriy. Yermak's father graduated from the Faculty of Radio Electronics of KPI. At first, he worked at the Artem plant, and later he got to the State Committee for Vocational Education. At the end of the 1980s, Yermak's father was sent to the Soviet embassy in Afghanistan to "supervise the vocational school." In those days it was called being a "specialist". Many of these "specialists", especially those who happened to be in Kabul at the height of the Afghan war, cooperated with the KGB or intelligence.

He studied international law at the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National University named after Shevchenko, which in the Russian abbreviation sounded like the legendary KIMO. The institute was one of the two schools in the USSR, together with the Lumumba People's Friendship University in Moscow, which was engaged in the training of the "fifth column" in different countries.

The beginning of the 90s was the time of the first legal boom. From 1991 to 1995, he worked as a lawyer in the private sector. In 1995, together with his partners, he founded CJSC "Legal Service "B. E. R. S. and partners". At a time when everyone was making money from registering companies or the first high-profile privatizations, the young student decided to work on intellectual property law. In the country of criminal gangs, racketeering, barter economy, "shuttlemen", emigration and a wave of pirated products. In 1997, he founded the International Law Company. He was engaged in legal practice and public activities for many years. The firm still exists, but since 2016 it is called "International Law Firm" . It is jointly owned by Yermak and Vashchenko.

A fairly successful lawyer, a fairly well-off man, Yermak, as he once did when creating a law firm, made an unusual decision: he took up something new for himself - cinema. In 2018, "Media Group of the European Partnership" won a tender of the Ministry of Culture for 25 million hryvnias for the filming together with a Slovak company of the multi-part historical film "Slavs". This series was planned to be broadcast by oligarch Igor Kolomoisky's channel "1+1". Since 2016, when Yermak got involved in the film business, "Garnet" received more than 53 million hryvnias from the state budget for the creation and promotion of films.

In 2010, Yermak was Arseniy Yatsenyuk's proxy in the 216th district in Kyiv during the presidential elections. By the way, the new head of the OPU has a relationship with another "front-line worker" - the head of "Oschadbank" Andriy Pyshny.

Andriy Yermak came to great politics thanks to one person - Volodymyr Zelenskyi. " We have been sincere friends with Volodymyr Oleksandrovych for many years ," Yermak said in a conversation with UP. On Yermak's Facebook page, there are very old joint photos with Zelenskyi and his wife Elena. The president and the head of his office met ten years ago on the "Inter" TV channel. At that time, Yermak's legal company provided services to the channel, and Zelenskyi was the general producer of "Inter" in 2010-2011.

But Yermak really got into politics in the spring of 2019, when Zelenskyi started running for the presidency. Yermak appeared publicly next to presidential candidate Zelenskyi on the stage of the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex during a spectacular debate with Poroshenko.

After Zelenskyi's victory, Yermak chose for himself, it seemed, the least important function - ordinary assistant. From May 21, 2019 to February 11, 2020, he worked as an assistant to the President of Ukraine. By decree of the President of Ukraine on June 21, 2019, he was appointed a member of the National Investment Council. From October 7, 2019 to June 19, 2020, he worked as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukroboronprom State Concern.

Immediately after the presidential elections, Mr. Yermak participated in all international meetings and visits, as Zelenskyi's team did not trust diplomats. It was he who was responsible for the negotiations with Russia regarding the Donbass and the exchange of prisoners, and prepared the Normandy talks in Paris. He had never before had experience in diplomacy, but he was ready to take on this difficult, perhaps the most difficult, task. Yermak became the main negotiator with the Russian Federation. Disdain for classic diplomacy and diplomats became a calling card of the presidential assistant.

Negotiations with Trump's scandalous lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, his envoys and American diplomats, led by Yermak, irreversibly approached the moment when Zelensky would have to come out with a statement about possible violations in the work of the Burisma company, where Biden's son worked. Giuliani needed Ukraine to join the fight against the US presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. After the American case, diplomats almost unanimously pointed to the excessive self-confidence of the new head of the Office.

The president was satisfied with the actions of his assistant. So much so that he decided to replace the seemingly irreplaceable head of the Office Andrii Bohdan with him. By decree of the President of Ukraine on February 11, 2020, he was appointed Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.