VolodyMyr Zensky yesterday visited Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman prior to the negotiations of high-stretches between Ukraine and the US to develop a cease-fire with Russia.
But the Ukrainian president chose to leave the port city of Jeddah before today's discussions even started, instead to choose to leave the fate of his nation to a trio of top employees led by presidential adviser Andriy Yermak.
Once a film producer and lawyer who first met the Ukrainian president during his years as a comedian, Yermak had no diplomatic experience when he got a low position in the Zelensky government in 2019.
A few years later, the 53-year-old is generally seen as the most trusted confidant of Zensky and has been given the authority to negotiate directly with the US State Secretary Marco Rubio on behalf of Kiev.
In the almost six years, Yermak was involved in Ukrainian politics, he yielded consistent results – especially after the full invasion of Russia in 2022.
He successfully negotiated with Russia to secure the freedom of Ukrainian prisoners and developed strong links with European leaders and defense chefs on behalf of the president.
All the while he has cultivated a narrow personal relationship with Zensky, so that his role as one of the most influential figures of the nation is effectively cemented in the extent that he is known as' St. Andriy, the first apostle 'by Ukrainian media.
But analysts fear that Donald Trump, who clearly houses a remarkable aversion to Zensky, probably promotes similar feelings for Yermak.
Zelensky's top assistant was a central figure in the Hunter Biden scandal in which Trump was accused of putting Zelensky under pressure to dig up dirt on Joe Biden family in exchange for military aid – allegations that led to the accusation of the US President.
While Yermak takes the lead over Stopping -the fire, his presence at the table can cause tensions well at a criticism and it can even endanger Kyiv's chances of concluding a favorable peace agreement.
Ukrainian head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak (Center) nowadays leads -the fire with American representatives in Saudi -Arabia
From Left, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad al-Aiban, Ukrainian Headian andrii Syrii Haignial Andrii Syrii, and Ukrainian Andrii Syra, and Ukrainian Andriiiiii Syriiiiiii andii Yermak Hold A Meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, March 11, 2025
US President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office in the White House on February 28, 2025 in Washington
Yermak's first important brush with American politics came in July 2019, only three months after the victory of the Zelensky election elections.
Yermak received a phone call from Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and urged him to open an investigation into the role of Hunter Biden in Burisma, an Ukrainian gas company that examined for corruption.
At the time, Hunter Biden, son of the then vice-president Joe Biden, received $ 50,000 a month to be on the Burisma board, even though they have no experience in the energy sector.
Giuliani and Trump were convinced that exposing misconduct to Burisma would damage the political status of Joe Biden for the 2020 elections.
According to a Ukrainian officer who spoke with De Telegraaf, Yermak was 'anxious not to be dragged into American domestic politics' and advised Zensky to keep up.
But his refusal to cooperate furiously Giuliani and Trump.
Around the same time, the Trump government chose to remember almost $ 400 million in military aid that was reserved for supporting Zensky's troops in their fight against by Russian separatists in the Donbas.
The suspect timing caused allegations that Trump trumps Zensky in a Quid Pro quo – continuous military aid in exchange for an obligation to investigate alleged corruption by the Biden family.
The Ukrainian president never made Trump's request and accusations that Trump had tried to force Kiev to investigate the Biden family led to his accusation.
Although he was eventually released from misconduct, the episode reportedly deepened the hostility of the US president against Zolensky and by extension, Yermak.
“Trump hates Ukraine,” said Lev Parnas, an American businessman born in Soviet who was once a fixer in Ukraine for Trump's lawyer Giuliani, to Polico last year.
“He and people around him believe that Ukraine was the cause of all Trump problems.”
But a Ukrainian government adviser told De Telegraaf this week: “The anger is not only to Zensky – it's also for Yermak.”
President of Ukraine VolodyMyr Zelenskyy (L) and head of the office of President Andriy Yermak are depicted
Andriy Yermak (R) has for years cultivated a close personal relationship with the leader of Ukraine
In view of the worries that Trump continues to look down on both Yermak and Zensky, the decision to send him to Saudi Arabia to lead critically -furen -raised eyebrows.
But Yermak has long been working in the center of the Ukrainian machines for foreign policy and Zensky is clearly of the opinion that his right hand is the best -equipped person to consider a peace agreement that would prevent Kiev catastrophic concessions to Moscow.
Since the start of his presidency, Yermak has been on the side of Zensky, after he has had a modest role in 2019 as a personal assistant of the presidential office.
That role, seen as a fairly low administrative job, did not come with an official portfolio.
But Yermak saw the lack of a definitive job description as an opportunity and reportedly began to consolidate by consolidating a great power by effectively becoming the constant shadow of Zensky.
“He was always physically the nearest,” a former officer told Ukrainskaya Pravda.
“Even if there was a meeting, Yermak would make his way to the armrest of the Zelensky chair to stay close.”
When Russia launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Yermak's work wore his place on the side of the president quickly fruit.
While Zensky played in the role of a war leader, Yermak skilfully made use of the personal and professional confidence placed in him by the president.
He has successfully orchestrated diplomatic outreach, protected international aid and has worked closely with European leaders and high officials in the BIDen government to structure economic sanctions against Russia.
Now for more than three years in the entire war, his power and influence as a central figure in the architecture of the foreign policy of KYIV is almost absolutely absolutely.
“The entire diplomatic track is an area where Yermak would be physically impossible to replace, even if Zensky wanted that,” said a former high -ranking officer at Ukrainskaya Pravda.
It is said that Trump cherishes a personal aversion to Zensky, and possibly Yermak
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with the Governor of Perm -Territorium Dmitry Makhonin during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 10, 2025
Yermak told reporters this morning prior to his meeting with the US State Secretary Marco Rubio that was Ukraine Ready to negotiate to end the war.
“We are ready to do everything to achieve peace,” said Yermak, before we went to social media later to explain that Discussions with the American delegation had started positively.
“The meeting with the American team started very constructively, we continue our work,” said Yermak.
In the conversations today, it is expected that Ukraine will propose a cease-fire with Russia for the Black Sea and long-distance missile attacks, as well as the release of prisoners, according to two senior Ukrainian officials.
The officials also said that KYIV is now ready to sign the coveted mineral agreement of Trump – although it is not clear whether security guarantees have been added.
“We have a proposal for a ceasefiring -fires in heaven and ceases -the fire at sea,” a Ukrainian officer told AFP on Monday and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“These are the cease -the -fire -options that are easy to install and check, and it is possible to start with it.”
The American State Secretary Rubio, who was accompanied in Jeddah by Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz, indicated that the Trump government would probably be satisfied with such a proposal.
“I am not saying that only enough is, but it is the kind of concession that you should see to end the conflict,” he told reporters.
'You do not get a ceasefish and an end to this war unless both parties make concessions.
“The Russians cannot conquer everywhere in Ukraine and it will of course be very difficult for Ukraine in a reasonable period of time to allocate the Russians to where they were in 2014,” added Rubio to when Russia seized the Crimea peninsistic offensively in the east of Ukraine.
In his plane to Jeddah, Rubio said that the American delegation would not propose specific measures to put an end to the three -year conflict, but rather to hear from Ukraine about what they would like to consider.
“I'm not going to set conditions for what they should or should do,” Rubio told reporters who accompanied him.
“I think we want to listen to see how far they want to go and then compare that with what the Russians want and see how far we really are apart.”
