On the evening of 20 November, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the Servant of the People faction and made it clear that Andrii Yermak, Head of the President's Office, would not be dismissed.

Source : Dmytro Lytvyn, Zelenskyy's communications adviser; MP Ihor Kryvosheiev; UP's sources in the faction

Details: On 20 November, media reported that the president was preparing to meet the Servant of the People faction.

MP Ihor Kryvosheiev said participants were asked to hand in their mobile phones.

According to UP's sources in the faction, Zelenskyy made it clear that there would be no dismissals in his team following the high-profile Operation Midas investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

At the start of the meeting, general topics were discussed. Later, MP Mariana Bezuhla asked the president whether he planned to dismiss Head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak and other officials.

"Zelenskyy said that staffing matters in the President's Office are the president's responsibility, and he made it clear that Yermak would not be dismissed," one participant said.

They also discussed appointing replacements for the ministers dismissed after Mindichgate. The president advised MPs to propose candidates to Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko.

Moreover, MPs report that when commenting on the corruption scandal in the energy sector, Zelenskyy said that he had already responded to it by dismissing ministers and imposing sanctions. And now, he said, the situation should be dealt with within the legal framework.

Read also: Mindichgate: one week on from the corruption scandal, what's going on in the government?

Background:

• Key officials close to Zelenskyy had advised him to dismiss Head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak after the high-profile Operation Midas investigation.
• MP Mykyta Poturaiev published a statement from members of the Servant of the People political party faction demanding the launch of a process to form a new coalition in the Ukrainian Parliament, followed by the creation of a government of national resilience.
• On 20 November, UP's political sources reported that Zelenskyy had decided not to replace the Head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak for now, despite public dissatisfaction with his performance and some statements by government representatives.

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