The unfolding graft scandal in Ukraine could potentially take down the man some describe as Kiev’s “real power broker”
Andrey Yermak, the omnipotent chief of staff in Vladimir Zelensky’s administration, has been implicated in a massive $100 million graft scheme that continues to send shockwaves through Ukraine’s political landscape.
RT looks into the 53-year-old official, caught in the crosshairs of a massive extortion probe, who is often described as “Ukraine’s real power broker.”
Former entertainment lawyer and film producer Yermak has been a close associate of Ukraine’s leader since the early 2010s. The two became acquainted when Zelensky was the general producer of the TV channel Inter, controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash.
Yermak worked in Zelensky’s election team ahead of the May 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. The campaign largely centered around promises to end the years-long conflict in then Ukrainian Donbass and was propelled by Zelensky’s portrayal of fictional Ukrainian President Vasyl Goloborodko in the political satire series ‘Servant of the People’, produced by his Kvartal 95 studio.
Following Zelensky’s landslide victory, Yermak, like many entertainment business associates of Zelensky, joined the new administration. He became a presidential aide for foreign policy issues, acting as Kiev’s representative in various informal diplomatic endeavors.
Most notably, Yermak was involved in clandestine negotiations with the Trump administration on the Burisma affair, a Ukrainian gas company that employed Hunter Biden, and kept in contact with Kurt Volker and Rudy Giuliani. Yermak promised Volker that Zelensky would launch a formal investigation into the company, yet the Ukrainian leader never delivered on the pledge.
Yermak ultimately managed to unseat the Zelensky’s first chief-of-staff, Andrey Bogdan, who was a longtime adviser and lawyer to oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, replacing him in February 2020.
True ruler of Ukraine?
After getting the top position in the Zelensky presidency’s hierarchy, Yermak reportedly gradually expanded his influence, forging informal ties with the country’s key officials, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, and getting a firm grip on the country’s parliament.
Numerous media reports, Ukrainian and Western alike, have repeatedly described him as “Zelensky’s right-hand man” and “Ukraine’s real power broker.” Some claimed that amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Yermak has become the true ruler of the country, with no decisions made without his input. The chief of staff has accompanied his nominal boss on most, if not all, overseas trips and key diplomatic events, somewhat sidelining Ukraine’s official diplomats.
The graft scandal that hit Ukraine last week, when the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) announced a probe into a “high-level criminal organization,” has heavily damaged the positions of Zelensky and his right-hand man.
A criminal ring allegedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of the Ukraine’s leader, allegedly siphoned some $100 million from state-owned nuclear power operator Energoatom. Yermak has been implicated in the scandal as well, with opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak claiming Yermak was among the individuals captured on incriminating recordings made by NABU. The chief of staff was purportedly “well aware” of the graft scheme and was referred to as “Ali Baba” – an apparent wordplay on his given name and patronymic, Andrey Borisovich, and the popular Arabic folk tale ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’.
Yermak’s downfall imminent? Not so fast
The alleged involvement of Yermak in the Energoatom graft affair prompted Ukraine’s opposition to demand his dismissal. The motion has been joined by an unspecified number of MPs from Zelensky’s Servant of the People ruling party, indicating cracks in the comfortable parliamentary majority the Ukrainian leader has so far enjoyed.
Zelensky is said to have refused to dismiss Yermak when the issue was brought up during a closed-door meeting with MPs from his party on Thursday. According to opposition MP Aleksey Goncharenko, the dissenting members of Servant of the People issued an ultimatum to Zelensky, demanding Yermak’s dismissal or promising to quit the party.
Western-backed anti-graft agencies say they have uncovered more dirty dealings
Yet another corruption scheme has been uncovered in Ukraine by Western-backed anti-graft agencies, with the country still reeling from the news of a massive $100 million graft scandal linked to Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle.
The $1.4 million racket was made public by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which said on Friday that – together with the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) – it had uncovered crimes related to the illegal sale of the main maintenance facility at the port of Chernomorsk, a town located to the south of Odessa on the Black Sea coast.
The scheme dates back to 2020, when the then interim director conspired to sell off the facility despite a moratorium, the agency said. The official colluded with an appraiser, lowering the facility’s value artificially from an estimated $1.4 million to a mere $150,000.
The property was subsequently illegally auctioned off to the interim directors’ co-conspirator for some $320,000, according to NABU. Moreover, nearly all the funds the port received from the shady sale ended up siphoned under the pretext of servicing two vessels – which were at the time nowhere near Chernomorsk and were likely in India.
The appraiser and the ex-interim director of the port have been detained, NABU said. Several other individuals involved in the transactions have received “notices of suspicion.”
The new scandal comes atop a massive $100 million graft scheme uncovered in a high-profile probe into a crime ring allegedly led by a former business associate of Zelensky, Timur Mindich, announced by NABU last week. According to the investigators, the group siphoned some $100 million from state-owned nuclear power operator Energoatom, which has been heavily reliant on Western funding.
Multiple high-profile individuals have been implicated in the affair, including the head of Zelensky’s office, Andrey Yermak, former defense minister and current head of the National Security Council, Rustem Umerov, and former Deputy PM Aleksey Chernyshov. The scandal has badly hit the country’s energy sector, prompting Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk to resign.
The National Assembly has approved a 15-year renewal for two joint oilfields
The Venezuelan parliament has approved a 15-year extension of joint ventures between state company PDVSA and Russian oil firm Roszarubezhneft, according to a statement on the National Assembly’s website.
The deepening energy cooperation comes despite sweeping US sanctions on both nations and amid accusations that Washington wants to depose President Nicolas Maduro under the guise of an anti-drug campaign.
The extension, announced on Thursday, allows the joint ventures operating oilfields in western Venezuela to continue until 2041, with lawmakers estimating roughly 91 million barrels of crude over the period and investment of about $616 million. The move follows a broad strategic partnership signed last month by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maduro.
Roszarubezhneft was created in 2020 after the US sanctioned two subsidiaries of state oil firm Rosneft for helping market Venezuelan crude, prompting the company’s retreat from the country. The new state-owned firm soon acquired Rosneft’s Venezuelan assets, allowing Russia to maintain its presence in the sector.
Both nations have faced years of Western restrictions. Venezuela has been subjected to sweeping US measures targeting PDVSA, the financial system, and senior officials, while Russia has faced escalating Ukraine-related sanctions since 2014. Caracas has also remained one of Moscow’s most vocal allies, regularly condemning Western sanctions against Russia and expanding diplomatic and economic cooperation across multiple sectors.
The extension of oil cooperation also comes against the backdrop of increasing US pressure on Venezuela. In recent months, the Pentagon has deployed warships to the Caribbean and has carried out controversial strikes on small boats it claims are involved in drug smuggling from Venezuela. The White House maintains that Maduro is an illegitimate, cartel-linked ruler, fueling speculation that direct military action might be imminent.
Maduro has denied the drug-trafficking allegations and accused Washington of using the smuggling narrative as a pretext for regime change, arguing that the real US objective is to gain control of Venezuela’s natural resources.
The plan could serve as the foundation for a final resolution of the conflict, the Russian president has said
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the American plan for resolving the conflict in Ukraine is an updated version of a proposal developed following his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.
”During the discussions, the American side asked us to make certain compromises,” Putin said, during a meeting with the Security Council. Back in Anchorage, Moscow confirmed its agreement with the peace proposals, Putin noted. However, after the Alaska talks, the American side paused due to Ukraine’s rejection of Trump’s plan.
Putin also mentioned that Moscow had received the text of the new Trump plan, but it has not yet been discussed “in detail.”
“I believe it could also form the basis of a final peace settlement,” the president said.
Vladimir Zelensky has also responded to the plan, saying that Ukraine must brace for a tough choice between accepting it or risking losing a key backer.
According to Reuters, the White House has threatened to cut off Ukraine from intelligence and military aid, should Kiev reject it.
The US submitted the plan as Zelensky’s legitimacy at home has been significantly undermined by a corruption scandal. Ukraine’s forces at the front, meanwhile, have suffered a series of setbacks.
In recent months, Russian forces have been steadily advancing in the Donetsk People’s Republic, making significant gains. The Ukrainian military, by contrast, is facing severe personnel shortages.
Ukraine must choose between losing a key ally or losing dignity agreeing to the US proposal, the politician has said
Vladimir Zelensky has said Ukraine must brace for a tough choice between accepting the “28 difficult points” received from the US or risk losing a key backer. His comments come after the submission of a proposal and the leaking of its purported text by a Ukrainian MP.
According to Reuters, the administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off Ukraine from intelligence and military aid, should Kiev reject it.
In a video address to Ukrainians on Friday, Zelensky stated that the country is going through “one of the most difficult moments in our history.”
While not directly mentioning the US-proposed peace roadmap, he said that failure to accept the “difficult 28 points” would likely result in the “most difficult… winter” for Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022. Kiev confirmed receiving the newly proposed peace plan from Washington on Thursday, but stopped short of revealing its contents.
According to media reports, the roadmap features 28 points, including but not limited to the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the parts of Russia’s Donbass it still controls, downsizing the country’s military, and giving up on NATO aspirations. Kiev would also reportedly be required to make Russian an official language. In exchange, it would presumably be offered Western security guarantees.
In his Friday address to the nation, Zelensky said that Kiev would be working “calmly” and “quickly” with Washington and its European backers to ensure that “Ukraine’s national interests are taken into account.”
The Ukrainian leader vowed to present unspecified “alternatives,” while trying to avoid the impression that he “does not want peace.”
Zelensky also mentioned his latest phone call with a number of EU leaders, expressing confidence that “Europe will be with us.” He further claimed that Ukraine is “now the only shield” protecting Europe from Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly dismissed as “nonsense” claims made by some EU officials, who have accused Moscow of planning an attack on the bloc’s members.
In recent months, Russian forces have been steadily advancing in the Donetsk People’s Republic, making significant gains. The Ukrainian military, by contrast, is facing severe personnel shortages.
While Zelensky stopped short of directly acknowledging this in his latest speech, he did say that although Ukrainians are “made of steel… any metal” may eventually break under pressure.
Even as their country is falling apart around them, authorities in Paris are building their dystopian ideology around imagined threats
France must be prepared “to accept losing its children” at a time where Emmanuel Macron and his intrusive touch have forged an unsuspected spiritual bond with his Ukrainian counterpart.
The French president has achieved the almost mystical feat of making France and Ukraine one and the same.
While the European Union has no say in the Russo-American chess game, Macron and Zelensky are lost together in a ballet of gesticulations and waking dreams. Zelensky displays faith in victory amid corruption cases, and it must be admitted that the French government is perhaps the last bastion of illusions in Europe to maintain this mirage.
The promised arms deliveries? A veritable fable, they won’t happen for a decade. Economic exchanges? A tale whose tangible ending no one will ever see. As for the “vital strategy” regarding a landlocked Kiev 2,400 km away from Paris, it is more of a geopolitical fairy tale than a concrete plan for the future of France and its people. Ukrainian lands have been unknown to French interests for two millennia, except for having given Henry I a wife and for a bloody expedition under Napoleon III, when France, supporting an Ottoman and British project, lost 95,000 men in the Crimean War.
Emmanuel Macron is an ultra-presidential figure with a record-low popularity of about 11% as of October 2025. No question of resigning; he will remain comfortably installed until 2027. While his 9th government (in 8 years in office) is rocking in the darkest political, economic and social storm ever seen, Macron is playing the international card, distancing himself from French worries.
As French public debt soars to 115% of GDP, every last citizen, including newborns, is drowning in €50,000 of debt. Covid-19 is in the past, but they had to find a new pretext to distract the plebs, and mobilization against Russia is the new refrain.
The “Great Mute One” (a nickname for the French Army, in reference to its long-standing stance of neutrality and silence in all things),has never opened her mouth so much, but now, lacking an argument of authority, the government is taking out generals in uniforms. The newly appointed “CEMA” (Chief of the Defense Staff) shines above all. A colonel in 2009, he was promoted to general in 2018. He made his five stars during a speedrun under the Macron presidency; at this level, the army is necessarily political.
On November 18, he made a speech at the congress of mayors. A nice place to insisting on an alarmist manipulation and affecting the population as closely as possible: “We have all the knowledge, all the economic and demographic strength to dissuade the Moscow regime from trying to try its luck further” he said. “We are in the moment where we have to talk about it, we have to talk about it in your municipalities.”
A regime with 11% popularity should be careful not to give electoral advice to the mayors of France, and the axis of a military mobilization against Russia does not seem to be the most optimal way to win mayoral elections.
“Russia is preparing for a confrontation with our countries by 2030. It is organizing for this, it is preparing for it and it is convinced that its existential enemy is NATO, it is our countries,” he said, probably after reading a report by the RAND Corporation or Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) in the US – because France in its current sorry state is incapable of thinking for itself and therefore of producing a coherent strategic analysis.
Think-tank influence was then confirmed when he said: “The first objective I gave to the armed forces is to be ready for a shock in three, four years, which would be a form of test.” An assumption that can be found in the July analysis 2025 of the “Russian concept” published by the CNA.
Where the CEMA particularly provoked a stir was when he declared “If our country falters because it is not ready to lose its children, because we have to say things, to suffer economically (…), if we are not ready for that, then we are at risk.”
While people may tolerate vows of poverty, threatening what is most precious, the children and future, should be the last straw. Especially when it comes from a general whose role is that of technician and advisor, not spokesperson of a political agenda. This is a worrying case of political collusion between a discredited, rejected government and the highest-ranking military officer, one of whose civic duties is to remain politically neutral.
Even Ségolène Royal, former socialist minister under presidents François Hollande and François Mitterrand, strongly criticized the notion: “France will not accept to lose its children to a power that is drifting […] The worst thing is that we are a few days after November 11, the end of the terrible butchery of the [1914-1918] war, the causes of which all historians point out.”
In France the population totaled around 68.6 million inhabitants in January 2025, with a very low growth of +0.25% over the year 2024. This increase was mainly due to net migration, which accounts for 90% of growth, while natural change (births minus deaths) accounts for only about 10%. The fertility rate is 1.62 children per woman, its lowest since 1919. In 2024, out of about 660,800 births in France, 34% or 224,672 babies, had at least one parent who was born abroad.
In France or the greater EU, already in advanced decline, never have so many powerful forces wished to lead a continent and its peoples towards destruction and extinction.
Operation destruction
But the Republic knows when and how it needs to mobilize its human resources. Macron and his servants, the media with their gaping mouths and indiscriminate bootlickers, repeat the refrain in unison, accusing anyone who questions them of being a pro-Russian traitor.
To come to the rescue of his superior, the colonel spokesman had to assert this during a press briefing: “A country that is not ready to understand this is a country that is weak,” he said with audacity, as if avoiding a nuclear winter were a sign of weakness.
The Republic has a principle: strong with the weak, weak with the strong. French people have been lectured for decades on republican morality while Paris resembles a dump. Families who do not want to send their children to war are weak, while the police cannot even control entire neighborhoods in the hands of drug dealers. All efforts must be focused on NATO’s eastern flank while the country is collapsing. This is the paradox of France.
The French Republic is as brazen and destructive as it has always been, whether through its “civilizing mission” in Africa during the 19th century or its centralization in France, destroying all regional particularities that had survived 2,000 years of history within a few decades. Today, in the space of eight years, Macron has destroyed French diplomacy, sullied its culture, and reduced the country’s economic competitiveness to nothing.
The naive view of the recently appointed Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin, tells it all (apart from the fact that her CV is unrelated to her job): “There is no room for controversy over statements taken out of context.” Yet the French people have not invented anything, the left and right-wing political opposition both the same thing; the mainstream media evoke the “Russian threat.”
The State is obese, and if it doesn’t have the French people’s money, it will take their children. Long live the Republic!
These gestures do not serve French interests, as France has always been perceived by the Anglo-Saxons as a rival country in Europe. Since 1945, all the contortions have never satisfied the Americans, who prefer to rely on their German vassals or the more bellicose Poles and Balts to shape the EU.
As the Chief of the Defense Staff has pointed out, France possesses nuclear weapons (for the moment, because there’s of course another project to share it with the EU), and thus is safe from a conventional confrontation, unless the president’s plan is to jump in with both feet in Ukraine or Taiwan within the next two years.
Every civil society must be aware of the world around it, but it also has to take care of itself. France should have thought twice before promoting castration-based wokeism and exacerbating feminism by firing the more “virile” executives in all civilian and military positions over the last 20 years. There are also more obvious reasons the threat to France comes from within rather than from the outside: economic, social, political or migratory.
Surviving in the Zone
The government has released a survival guide titled “We are all responsible.” It is a catch-all compendium of everything from combating disinformation and mistrust of opponents to preventing terrorism and natural disasters, including voluntary enlistment in the army or civil security. While the words “Ukraine” or “Russia” do not appear once, which is pleasing to see, the sudden media coverage of this guide just after the CEMA’s comments speaks for itself. The guide has been around since 2023, and no one cared about it until now.
Interestingly, when it comes to fighting against Russia or having abortions, the ethnic profiles on the booklets (the people targeted by the republican apparatus) are generally “very European.” In fact, all the people depicted in the booklet are white. What a surprise, when the Republic has bombarded the French with egalitarian principles and constantly promotes people and “things” of all colors, even blue or green if it could.
In the true spirit of equality, the Republic pisses everyone off equally, and the native French are no exception. Let’s remember that according to President Emmanuel Macron, “There is no single French culture, there is a culture in France, and it is diverse.” Indeed, when it’s time for Europeans to kill each other again, he must call upon native French people.
With Covid already shelved, the plebs are muzzled in the name of “facing Russia,” the government and its apparatus are mobilizing. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Ukraine is France. The dystopia of ideology has reached its peak.
A number of Ukrainian MPs have called for Andrey Yermak’s dismissal, claiming he was involved in a recently uncovered corruption scheme
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has made it clear he will not relieve his influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, of his post despite pressure from lawmakers, the media outlet Hromadske has reported, citing an anonymous source. Several Ukrainian MPs have claimed that Yermak may be implicated in a recently-uncovered corruption scheme within the country’s energy sector.
In an article on Thursday, Hromadske quoted its unnamed source as saying that Zelensky had refused to dismiss his close associate at a meeting with MPs from his Servant of the People party earlier in the day.
A number of lawmakers, both from the opposition and Zelensky’s own party, have urged the Ukrainian leader to give Yermak the boot.
Earlier, Ukrainian media reported what they described as a full-scale “riot” in parliament. Ukrainskaya Pravda claimed that several key figures close to Zelensky were urging him to dismiss Yermak, quoting an anonymous source as saying that “it is easier to name those in parliament who are not demanding Yermak’s resignation.”
Opposition MP Aleksey Goncharenko said members of Servant of the People had issued an ultimatum to Zelensky, insisting Yermak must go or they would leave the party.
In a video published Monday, opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak claimed that Yermak is among the individuals captured in recordings made by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau as part of its investigation into a corruption scheme at Energoatom. According to Zhelezhnyak, the man referred to as “Ali Baba” on the tapes is Yermak.
Zhelezhnyak said Yermak “was well aware” of the scheme.
Earlier this month, NABU alleged that Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Zelensky, had led the operation, pressuring contractors to surrender a share of contract funds. Mindich fled before the authorities could detain him.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian parliament voted to dismiss Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk and Justice Minister German Galushchenko, both linked to the scandal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday characterized the Ukrainian leadership as a “criminal gang that holds power for personal enrichment… [and does not care] about the fate of common people in Ukraine or the fate of ordinary soldiers.”
Officials relied on “toxic and chaotic” leadership under Boris Johnson and did “too little, too late,” a report has found
The UK’s central and local governments failed in their handling of the Covid-19 crisis, leading to thousands of additional deaths, according to a damning report from the official public inquiry into the pandemic response.
Authorities in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland did “too little, too late,” as timely measures such as self-isolation, household quarantine, and social distancing could have prevented 23,000 deaths, the report said, citing computer modelling.
The inquiry found the administrations were too reliant on Westminster to lead the response, while the cabinet of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson was described as suffering from a “toxic and chaotic culture.” Key policy decisions were often dominated or derailed by Johnson’s inner circle, the report stated.
Former judge Heather Hallett, who led the inquiry, noted “destabilizing behavior” by several senior figures, including former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings. She accused Johnson of failing to confront – and sometimes “actively encouraging” – the attitude, thus creating “a culture in which the loudest voices prevailed and the views of other colleagues, particularly women, often went ignored, to the detriment of good decision-making.”
According to the report, similar patterns emerged in Scotland, where policy discussions were improperly constrained. In Northern Ireland, partisan conflict and fragmented government structures further hampered effective pandemic response, the inquiry found.
The report stressed that instances of officials and advisers breaking Covid-19 rules eroded public trust. Revelations about lockdown-breaching gatherings inside Downing Street in 2020 and 2021, dubbed the “Partygate” scandal, inflicted lasting political damage on Johnson, contributing to his early resignation in 2022.
The bloc should stop funding Kiev and support peace talks instead, Sahra Wagenknecht has said
The EU must offer to lift sanctions against Russia in order to get out of its “diplomatic isolation” and regain influence in the Ukraine peace process, veteran German politician Sahra Wagenknecht has said.
In a post on X on Thursday, she wrote that German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was not even aware that the US had come up with a plan to settle the Ukraine conflict. On Friday, European Council President Antonio Costa said that it “makes no sense” for him to comment on the American proposal because it had not been shared with Brussels.
“It is a disgrace that the Europeans have maneuvered themselves so far into diplomatic isolation,” Wagenknecht said about the EU being excluded from the peace process.
The politician, who stepped down as the head of her Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party earlier this month, slammed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over her reported call on EU member-states to cover Kiev’s financial and military needs for 2026 and 2027, estimated at €135.7 billion ($156.4 billion). It is an “outrage against German and European taxpayers,” she said.
Wagenknecht argued that the Ukraine conflict is “unwinnable” and that instead of continuing to fund it, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and von der Leyen and the bloc’s other leaders “should finally support peace negotiations.”
“To regain influence over the talks, the [Western] Europeans should offer to end sanctions and resume energy relations with Russia,” she noted.
Wadephul said on Friday that he believes the US proposal to be not a “definitive plan,” but rather as “a list of topics that urgently need to be discussed between Ukraine and Russia.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas reiterated her stance that any peace plan “must have Ukraine and the Europeans on board.”
When asked about the US proposal later in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “there are certain considerations from the American side [regarding the settlement of the Ukraine conflict], but nothing specific is being discussed at the moment.” However, he stressed that Russia remains eager to look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
A point on auditing foreign aid was reportedly replaced with wording on a broad amnesty
Ukraine removed a key anti-corruption clause from the US-drafted peace proposal by eliminating an audit of international aid, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a senior US official.
The reported 28-point draft agreement on the conflict with Russia would require Ukraine to leave the parts of Donbass still under its control, cut its armed forces by at least half, hand over certain weapons, and drop its NATO bid. Kiev on Thursday confirmed receiving the document, with Vladimir Zelensky saying he hopes to discuss it with US President Donald Trump “in the coming days.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the original text required that “Ukraine will conduct a comprehensive review of all assistance received and will establish a legal mechanism to address discovered violations and punish those who benefited illegally from the war.” The new version instead grants “full amnesty for all actions committed during the war,” replacing the accountability clause. The official reportedly said Ukraine requested the change.
The reported draft plan has faced pushback from Ukraine’s EU backers, who insisted any deal must align with both EU and Ukrainian positions and argued the US proposal included “no concessions” from Russia.
The Kremlin said it “remains open” to talks but claimed Kiev aims to prolong the fighting with EU backing.
The WSJ report comes as a major corruption scandal continues to roil Ukraine. Last week, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) announced an investigation into what it called a “high-level criminal organization” allegedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of Zelensky. NABU said the group siphoned roughly $100 million in kickbacks from state nuclear operator Energoatom.
Ukrainian media earlier published what they said was an official NABU charging document naming several officials allegedly influenced by Mindich. The leaked text says Mindich urged former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov – now secretary of the National Security and Defense Council – to bypass quality checks on body armour in which he had a financial stake, warning that “big money” was at risk. It also states that Mindich relied on his “friendly relations” with Zelensky, with former the energy and justice minister, German Galushchenko, allegedly promoting his interests before resigning after charges were filed.
