With all eyes on Alaska for President Donald Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's right-hand man Andriy Yermak's profile is rising, but not always for the right reasons.
As the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, he will likely be by Zelenskyy's side once Trump calls following his meeting with Putin.
"Yermak is convinced that he's got all the answers, even though, quite frankly, he often doesn't," a former senior official in the Biden administration told Fox News Digital.
His influence is considered second only to Zelenskyy, and he has even been accused of making personnel moves that not even Zelenskyy is fully aware of.
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The senior official said Yermak has his own agenda and devises strategy for Zelenskyy. He’s a key figure in terms of personnel and determines who takes important decisions in the presidential office.
"He is an unelected official who wields immense power in Ukraine," the former Biden official said.
Echoing this sentiment, a senior Senate Republican staffer said Yermak is politically tone-deaf on Washington, D.C., politics and would oftentimes request meetings on Capitol Hill without an agenda or concrete asks on behalf of Ukraine’s needs.
"Dealing with Donald Trump, MAGA Republicans is also very different from dealing with Joe Biden liberals, and you have to be able to talk to both camps in this town and be able to do it at the same time in a lot of different ways. It's a hard thing to do. And he's just terrible at it," the staffer who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital.
Like Zelenskyy, Yermak’s previous experience is in entertainment, as a martial arts movie producer and a copyright lawyer. He had no prior experience in government before teaming up with Zelenskyy to join his historic presidential campaign in 2019.
Zelenskyy appointed him as his top advisor on international affairs, but even his harshest critics admit that Yermak is someone who gets things done.
"Yermak knows how to manhandle the government and the apparatus. He has installed loyalists throughout the government. And so he can use all of those levers of power to get results," Josh Rudolph, anti-corruption expert at the German Marshal Fund, told Fox News Digital.
When power is concentrated and personalized, as is the case with Yermak, mistakes can happen. Rudolph and others who spoke with Fox News Digital said it was Yermak who advised Zelenskyy on the contentious February Oval Office meeting with Trump.
Several Ukrainian officials who spoke to Fox News Digital allege that Yermak was the force behind Zelenskyy’s decision to sign a law that targeted Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption institutions, which led to international condemnation and the largest anti-government demonstrations against Zelenskyy’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
"It was a plan made and implemented by Yermak. Everyone else was just the instrument in this plan. It was his idea to go after the anti-corruption law enforcement agencies," Yaroslav Zheleznyak, chairman of the Finance Committee in Ukraine’s parliament, told Fox News Digital.
Zheleznyak described a dynamic where Yermak acts as prime minister, defense minister, foreign affairs minister and the head of parliament, all at once. He is the only one who can speak for Zelenskyy with any authority.
Zelenskyy ultimately reversed course in response to the large outcry of opposition, and Ukraine’s parliament subsequently passed new legislation to restore the independence of the anti-corruption agencies.
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Yermak told Fox News Digital through his spokesperson that, despite the criticism of some of the internal decision-making within Ukraine, Zelenskyy is firmly in control.
"Anyone who knows President Zelenskyy will tell you the same: he always makes his own decisions. He listens, weighs the facts and context — but he cannot be pressured. "That’s part of his strength," Yermak's spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
He downplayed the recent outpouring of opposition to Zelenskyy’s move to weaken two key anti-corruption agencies and appoint a politically-backed lead prosecutor.
"If people, especially young people, came out to express their views — that’s democracy in action. And they weren’t protesting against the President — they wanted to be heard. And the President heard them," Yermak's spokesperson said.
Yermak’s been a pivotal conduit for Ukraine in negotiating with the U.S. and its European allies, particularly in pushing for tougher sanctions on Russia. While his unorthodox approach undoubtedly rankles the sensibilities of the Washington, D.C., foreign policy world and his compatriots in Ukraine, he is still a trusted advisor with key allies.
"In every country, certain posts are easily demonized by the media. Not because of the people on them, but because of the position's proximity to the leader. Whatever the media reports, I can only share my personal experiences working with Andriy. I've seen him in the bunker beside the President since the first hours of the full-scale war," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"He was there. Working literally around the clock, ready to take on any task, no matter how complex. He is a true workaholic, but he also has a sense of humor that gets him through even the most difficult situations," Sybiha added.
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Personal loyalty is one aspect of Yermak’s character and power projection that all officials who spoke to Fox News Digital confirmed was most important.
Volodymyr Ariev, a member of the Ukrainian Rada with the European Solidarity political party, told Fox News Digital that Yermak has built up a power base that consists of loyalists and individuals who lack professionalism.
"Yermak is willing to be a top person in diplomacy, but at the same time, I don't think he is very effective, especially in relations between United States and Ukraine, and he has become a bipartisan irritant," Ariev said.
He claimed that officials on both sides of the Atlantic lack trust in Yermak.
Zelenskyy, Rudolph and others argued, is better when he takes counsel from other sources.
"Zelenskyy has achieved better results when listening directly to his peers on the world stage, like President Trump and the European leaders, whether it relates to his readiness to accept an unconditional ceasefire or the backtrack on undermining the anti-corruption institutions," Rudolph said.
Zelenskyy took calls from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron as soon as the crisis over the independence of the anti-corruption institutions blew up.
The president ultimately listened to their direct pleas and promised them that he would fix the situation, which he then promptly did.
Yermak’s role as Zelenskyy’s most trusted advisor will be put to the test as Russia continues to make steady gains on the battlefield with intense international pressure mounting for a ceasefire.
