U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) and Ukraine’s Presidential Office Chief of staff Andriy Yermak hold a press conference following their closed-door talks at the U.S. embassy in Geneva, on November 23, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
The premises of Kyiv’s second most powerful man are being searched, amid claims he has “skimmed hundreds of millions” in Western aid.
But investigations are quickly moving closer to Volodymyr Zelensky, with Ukraine’s national anti-corruption bureau, NABU, raiding the premises of his chief of staff on Friday.
Andriy Yermak is often described in the Western press as Kyiv’s second most powerful man. NABU said the searches were “sanctioned,” but did not specify what they were in connection with.
However, in a weighty post on Monday, American broadcaster Tucker Carlson claimed that The Wall Street Journal has known about details of “the personal corruption of Andrii Yermak” for “months,” and that it could “prove” he has “skimmed hundreds of millions in American”—and, presumably, European—“tax dollars meant for Ukraine aid.” Carlson argued that the paper was instead “protecting” the official because
Yermak is leading Ukraine’s efforts to scuttle the Trump peace plan for Eastern Europe. The owners of The Wall Street Journal don’t want peace with Russia. They want war. At the same time, the Journal’s editorial page has attacked the Trump administration for pushing a peace agreement.
For months, the Wall Street Journal has held a story detailing the personal corruption of Andrii Yermak, the second most powerful man in Ukraine. Yermak has skimmed hundreds of millions in Amercian tax dollars meant for Ukraine aid. The Journal’s editors can prove that. But…
Others, including Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Dubinskyi, have pointed to Yermak’s recent “showing off” of what appears to be a luxury watch worth tens of thousands of euros.
At the meeting with Rubio in Geneva, Yermak showed off a $47,000 Audemars Piguet watch.
And you’re still asking what U.S. aid was spent on?
Similar searches over recent months inside the Kyiv apartments of some top officials have resulted in the finding of “duffel bags filled with cash” and a “golden toilet.”
Brussels officials perhaps have not yet had enough time to comment on this latest search. Although, if recent weeks have taught us anything, they won’t bother even given the time, and will instead continue talking about plugging Ukraine’s €135.7 billion funding gap for 2026-2027.
Yermak himself said on Friday morning that anti-corruption investigators were “provided with full access to the apartment, on site—my lawyers, who are interacting with the law enforcement officers. From my side—full cooperation.”
Сьогодні НАБУ і САП дійсно проводять процесуальні дії у мене вдома. Жодних перешкод у слідчих немає. Їм було надано повний доступ до квартири, на місці – мої адвокати, які взаємодіють із правоохоронцями. З мого боку – повне сприяння.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
