Andriy Yermak, aka Ali Baba, central to Mindichgate, directed law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies, protected allies, and influenced key decisions, while the President appears unwilling to dismiss him.
Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak reveals.
Okay, let me say this once while others are still silent:
Andriy Yermak… must be dismissed. Or resign himself.
I am absolutely convinced that the Head of the Presidential Office:
▪️has long been closely acquainted with Mindich (after all, he was the one who helped him become Head of the Presidential Office);
▪️was perfectly aware of what was happening and how. Especially on military matters;
▪️was clearly playing a key role in the decision-making here.
In this video, we gathered about 10% of the examples where Yermak obviously knew about the corruption, and without his people nothing there could have happened at all. So for me, this was obvious even without the tapes.
Just as it is obvious that he was the one behind organizing the “liquidate NABU” special operation on July 21–22.
And similarly, it was he who discouraged the President — both in July and now — from making a quick decision to retreat. Which does not remove responsibility from the President himself.
And consider this a political statement, but in light of everything we’ve heard already — and what we will still hear — I believe Yermak must be dismissed.
Otherwise, absolutely nothing will change, and in a couple of months there will be slightly fewer “people of Halushchenko” and slightly more “people of Kuleba.”
And there will be another attempt to attack NABU and SAPO — do not doubt that. I am already convinced that preparations for this have begun, and guess who is handling it again?
And most importantly, I am equally convinced that the President is not going to dismiss him himself. He was with him in Athens yesterday and in Paris today. So I think he will keep him until the very end. Losing approval ratings and claiming that he “knew nothing.”
P.S. And yes, that’s him on the “Ali Baba” tapes. Only this time he is the bad character — “holding meetings and assigning tasks to persecute NABU and SAPO.”
“Who was really behind Mindichgate? Why do all roads — from the tapes to the energy sector, from Sense Bank to the attacks on NABU and SAPO — suddenly lead to one office on Bankova? And most importantly: why has this person still not been dismissed, even though their role is visible even without special intelligence? In this video, I show the mechanics of influence, hidden alliances, the “decision triangle,” and the moments the Office worked hard to conceal. Who is “Ali Baba,” and what role did he play in the corruption flows? Why did panic break out in the Presidential Office right after I asked my question in Parliament? And who benefits today from saving this entire house of cards? I am Yaroslav Zhelezniak, and this is my blog on the “Zaliznyy Nardep” channel. Join the discussion in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss important updates.
Hi. This will, I hope, be a loud video. Why loud? Because this is something that needs to be spoken about directly, and to be honest, I barely understand why others are not doing it. With this video, I want to highlight, underline, point out and, essentially, state that there is another person who clearly bears full responsibility for the entire Mindichgate — for everything that happened. And this person must go. And of course, I’m not talking about the President, because that is at least legally impossible during a full-scale war. And in principle, investigations against the President are also impossible under the law.
But this person often has powers greater than those of the President. And we are talking about someone who is a key figure in our investigations, someone said to have unreal influence and unreal closeness to the President. We are talking about the Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.
And, in principle, in this video I could simply record a few phrases for you, for example, that nothing in this country happens without him. So if such large-scale corruption, the appointment of people as Minister of Energy or Ecology, or even as ambassadors to the U.S., and all of these things happened — they happened at the very least with Yermak’s knowledge or awareness of what was going on inside.
But our video is not going to be political; it will be, let’s say, investigative. And now I will explain how we can logically show that for Yermak, this whole story with the tapes — and, in fact, all the responsibility that must follow — leads to him clearly and directly. So get ready. This will be a rather rare video in the sense that I don’t remember any other MP saying this so openly.
So, colleagues, if you’re watching — what are you afraid of? He’s not Voldemort and definitely not someone who was elected. And let’s finally admit that this is the root of the problems we hear on the tapes and will continue to hear on the tapes. And by the way, today we’ll also mention — a small teaser — that he has his own special name within this organization. You’ll hear it at the end of this video.
So, I’m Yaroslav Zhelezniak. This is the Zaliznyy Nardep channel. And we begin.
We’ll start this video a bit romantically. We’ll begin with how, in fact, Tymur Mindich and Andriy Yermak — who, as we now clearly understand, together had significant influence over decision-making in the country, somewhere there alongside Litvin (though he’s irrelevant to this story) — first met.
To be honest, I’ve asked quite a lot of people who in one way or another know Zelenskyy’s story before his candidacy, as well as the stories of Yermak and even Mindich. And frankly, there are two versions of how it happened. Which one is true — honestly, I don’t know. And to be frank, it seems to me that both of them could be accurate.
Version number one: Tymur Mindich has, among his businesses, the official distribution of Dolce & Gabbana and other brands. This is technically through his wife, and it still operates. It’s registered to Khmelyov, who now also appears in Fire Point. On the other side, we have Andriy Yermak, who at that time represented the legal interests of the Sanahunt store. That’s the store on Hrushevskoho Street, also selling luxury clothing.
And so a dispute began between them. On one side was Tymur Mindich, on the other — Andriy Yermak, and somehow they came together. Maybe this version is true.
I believe the second version, which is simpler: Andriy Yermak has been friends with President Zelenskyy for a long time. Mindich has also been friends with President Zelenskyy for a long time. So they crossed paths at many events, and that’s how they started communicating. But all my sources emphasize that before Zelenskyy’s election and, accordingly, his inauguration, Yermak and Mindich were not particularly close. They knew each other, maybe even met at birthday parties, but it wasn’t close communication.
Here I want us to go a bit further back and recall who Tymur Mindich was up until around 2020. Because, let me remind you, he was essentially with Benya — that is, Kolomoiskyi. As they say, “bring this, take that, pick up a suit, talk to someone.” A person who, to put it mildly, was not very influential.
Now I’m going to show you a video from 2014 or 2015 where Mindich’s role is documented. It’s documented: he’s setting up a Zoom for Kolomoiskyi at that time. By the way, it should be noted that Kolomoiskyi generally speaks poorly of Mindich, as do all the people I’ve interviewed over the past six months about Tymur Mindich’s overall role. Everyone, when they learned that he had some influence, said: “Well, he’s not really capable of influencing much.”
And already when Mindichgate came out, and, accordingly, there was the trial with Kolomoiskyi, here’s his phrase… of course, like all of Kolomoiskyi’s phrases, but it really reflects what I heard from many people about Mindich, who knew him before, let’s say, 2023.
But Mindich, despite everything, had one story that later played both a good and bad trick on him. This is the story of when Kvartal came to 1+1, and Kolomoiskyi, in his usual manner, was not paying them. It was Tymur Mindich who brought Shefir and Zelenskyy to Kolomoiskyi and somehow negotiated these payments, more shows, airtime. In short, he was the person who acted as Kvartal’s personal manager within Kolomoiskyi’s structure, which not only created working relationships but also genuinely friendly relations with Shefir and Zelenskyy. And they even entered into a certain legal partnership regarding Kvartal and Kvartal TV.
During the elections, it should also be noted that Mindich didn’t have much influence. Apart from some meetings taking place in his apartment — that same apartment of Mindich at Hrushevskoho 9a — where, according to many of my sources, he just brought tea and didn’t really influence anything. At that time, however, there was another very, very, very powerful figure, whom we’ve probably already forgotten. That was Andriy Bohdan.
And why are we mentioning him now? Because it was around Bohdan that Mindich’s career within Zelenskyy’s structure began. And although Bohdan himself constantly claims that he was “taken down by the Sorosyata,” the real story was a little different. Against Bohdan, a certain coalition quickly formed. And the head of this coalition was none other than Ihor Kolomoiskyi. Together with him were Avakov and others who wanted to get rid of Bohdan — which, frankly, they succeeded in doing.
And Tymur Mindich was exactly the person who noticed that there was another candidate close to Zelenskyy. He was an assistant, handling negotiations. They communicated quite well. And if Zelenskyy needed to replace someone — in this case, to find a replacement for Andriy Bohdan — why not Andriy Yermak? In this way, Mindich constantly brought him to Kolomoiskyi, introduced him, and in a sense, Mindich, to some extent, gave us the next, second Head of the Presidential Office under President Zelenskyy — Andriy Yermak.
And so it went. Mindich was barely noticed. And then the full-scale war began, during which, let’s say, two events took place.
Event number one: Zelenskyy’s friend and first assistant, also Mindich’s partner from Kvartal 95, Serhiy Shefir, steps into the background. According to many of our sources, he had been overseeing Energoatom, Centrenergo, and the same OPZ. He moves into the shadows, in part because Andriy Yermak pushes him aside. And Yermak pushes him aside to now help his own friend, with whom he has good and working relations — Tymur Mindich.
So at some point, instead of Shefir, the functional overseer of the economic side — especially the state energy enterprises — another person appears. And that person, in one way or another, becomes Tymur Mindich himself. So Yermak repays a favor.
Then, in September 2023, Kolomoiskyi ends up in pre-trial detention. Our sources claim that Mindich was the person who came to Kolomoiskyi — the same person who had previously represented him in negotiations with Zelenskyy, which Misha Tkach documented while working in the Schemes — and informed IVC that either he had a week to leave the country and hand everything over, or there would be problems. This was their last meeting, as far as I understand. After that, they did not communicate. And Kolomoiskyi, to put it mildly, hasn’t been particularly fond of Tymur Mindich since then.
And at that moment, when Kolomoiskyi was behind bars and Shefir was absent, the star we now all know by face and by the nickname Karlson began to rise. So on the stage with the duo of Yermak and Zelenskyy, a third fully influential person appeared — Tymur Mindich.
And here begins a very interesting thing that I couldn’t understand for a long time. This is the story of asking someone about corruption, especially in 2023, and an official showing you like this. Honestly, I didn’t understand what it was at first. But then I was explained that it’s a triangle, or “trio,” consisting of the top leader, Zelenskyy, Yermak, and Tymur Mindich. Basically, these three together made decisions about state companies and decisions about the Cabinet. In short, this story worked through the three of them.
And for a very, very, very long time, Tymur and, accordingly, Andriy Yermak were like one unit, including for a long time in 2025. The first news about a potential conflict between them started around, let’s say, five months ago. And judging by what we saw on the tapes, this conflict did not affect their business activities, but most likely had political consequences — more for Tymur Mindich than for Yermak.
First, there’s the story about the formation of the new government, in which Mindich’s quota was reduced. Second, a subtle “undermining” began — hard to notice, but in principle, they continued to cooperate on all other issues, undermining competitors, dividing appointments. In short, everything kept moving forward even after these rough patches between them.
And most importantly, Tymur Mindich was managing businesses in which Yermak’s involvement was, in one way or another, evident. I’ll give you a few examples — there are many more, but there’s probably no point in going through all of them.
Example number one: you remember our first investigation into the channel, or rather the media empire, “We — Ukraine.” It was registered to people connected to Yermak, some even working with him in the office, but the entire festival or media empire, so to speak, was managed by Mindich. And even there, some shared personnel were registered under his business.
The second case is Fire Point, which we also investigated — a company linked to Mindich, through Khmelyov. And for a long time, according to our sources, its interests were pushed or strongly recommended by Andriy Yermak himself, including, by the way, in the spring of this year.
Point number three — the story with the houses and Dynastia. And where people talk about it, at least referring to the AntAC or even Yura Nikolov, aside from the houses of Chernyshov and Mindich, there are supposedly two other houses. There is a very widespread belief that the third house nearby is actually Andriy Yermak’s. We don’t know, we cannot confirm, but colleagues claim this, and somehow it seems to me that they know.
Number four — the story with state companies. For example, Centrenergo, which was obviously under the influence of Tymur Mindich. And there will be a separate story about it, I think, and also on the tapes. But the chair of the supervisory board of this enterprise is not a Mindich person. The chair of the board is a person who for a very long time was head of the office of the Head of the Presidential Office from 2020–22. Guess who — Andriy Yermak.
Another example — the State Property Fund. Completely under Mindich. But initially, Andriy Yermak appointed someone he considers his own — Rustem Umerov — and at the same time supervised it through his deputy head of the Presidential Office, Rostyslav Shurma. Also a Mindich person, but somehow it worked.
Moreover, at that time it was Rostyslav Shurma who created the land bank project. By the way, it’s still a fairly good reform. Later, however, this reform also started to be managed by Mindich’s people. And somehow, despite this whole story, it worked perfectly with Yermak as well. Later, Yermak did not attempt in any way to replace the acting head who remained after Mr. Koval, and Koval was appointed Minister of Agrarian Policy. This link — the fund and the land bank of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy — worked perfectly. We’ll also learn more about this from the tapes.
There’s another story. Since we mentioned Rustem, from court rulings and what’s been referenced, we understand that he was on the tapes. We don’t know what exactly, but I think we’ll find out relatively soon. But one thing we can say for sure — Rustem was never considered part of Mindich’s quota. He was always regarded as within Yermak’s sphere of influence. In fact, all military matters always remained under Yermak. So, in a way, if Mindichgate eventually leads us to corruption in military issues, it couldn’t have happened without Yermak.
I could give many more examples. At the very least, regarding the appointment of the U.S. ambassador — how could this even be discussed without knowing the position of Andriy Borysovych? But let’s not dwell on that.
There’s one more example that, frankly, seems to tie everything together. It’s a small example — but Sense Bank. Initially, Sense Bank had the entire management appointed by Shurma — that is, by Mindich. This included the chairman of the board, Mr. Stupak, who is still considered part of his appointees. But later, a “supervisor” or advisor to the supervisory board was appointed — Mr. Vasyl Veselyy. He had previously appeared in Mykhailo Tkach’s investigation regarding Karpatnaftekhim. He is credited with influence over Sense Bank. And, frankly, we hear about him on the same Mindich tapes.
Here’s the point: Vasyl Veselyy is not a Mindich person at all. He is a Yermak person. And if everything was working together at Sense Bank — and we see and hear, more precisely, that it was working — then, to put it mildly, I think this is where the cooperation also effectively started.
So, in this case, many things can be mentioned. The Securities Commission, by the way, which works with Mindich, is chaired by someone who is definitely a Yermak person. Or take Mr. Kuleba, now Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction, who still maintains his position and has been involved, among other things, in the protection of energy facilities. He is definitely not a Mindich person, but he was involved accordingly.
I want to dedicate a separate part to the story with Halushchenko. The fact is that after all these changes in the Cabinet, many sources started saying that Halushchenko began to listen very carefully and systematically to Andriy Yermak. But on the same tapes, we can see that until, essentially, autumn, and more precisely until October this year, he also listened to Mindich. So it all worked perfectly between them, even after the government was replaced.
And the last point, which I think should be mentioned, is the story with the sanctions. This is an interesting one against Mindich and, accordingly, Tsukerman. But my sources clarify that the way it was written and, most importantly, who handled it, was none other than Andriy Yermak.
So, basically, it seems to me that the story is proven here. I want to show you one more episode. It’s, in principle, interesting from all sides, but now I’ll tell you a certain detail — what happened after this episode. This is my speech, or rather my question, during the Government Question Hour — to Herman Halushchenko on January 17, 2025.
— Yaroslav Ivanovych Zheleznyak, please.
— Good morning, Minister. I have a very simple question, which is often raised in the media. Please answer a few questions: are you personally familiar with Mr. Tymur Mindich, and if so, what kind of relationship do you have, and what role does this person play in energy management? Thank you.
— Let me answer your last question first. Mr. Mindich plays no role in energy management. The minister of energy is the one who plays that role. That’s me.
Now, people say that after this question, there was a stir in the Presidential Office. And this stir was raised by none other than the head of the Presidential Office himself.
So does Andriy Yermak know about this whole story? I think the question is, let’s say, very rhetorical. Moreover, let’s be honest: Ukrainska Pravda has already written that he appeared somewhere in its registries, and there’s the story about the fake Yermak, and many other things.
I also want to show one moment that is simply interesting. It’s this meeting — there were several of them — where Andriy Yermak suddenly started, already after the Mindichgate scandal, meeting with ambassadors and saying that, well, society is destabilizing, and that they need to ask — even insist — that anti‑corruption activists and, basically, all anti‑corruption bodies stop criticizing the authorities, stop publishing their recordings, and, accordingly, stop doing everything they are doing right now. Well, another story.
And now I want to draw attention to one last thing — sort of the line that ties everything else together. As you know, we recently had an anti‑corruption forum. Here is our panel of speakers. And here, to my right, you can see the head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Oleksandr Klymenko. He read out or quoted some materials and said that on the tapes they heard how a certain “Ali Baba” is now holding meetings with law enforcement — on how to stop NABU and SAPO, how to punish them, how to block them.
“Ali Baba holds certain meetings and assigns tasks to law enforcement so that they pursue and continue to pursue NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors. This is an abnormal situation.”
At that moment, frankly, I thought Ali Baba was someone like Oleg Tatarov.
But immediately many of my sources said no — Ali Baba is A.B. Very often, and by the way, I never liked it, Yermak is called either Alla Borysivna or the Prima Donna — in short, a shorthand for his first name and patronymic, A.B.
So, Ali Baba on these tapes is Andriy Yermak. And since he has, well, a separate nickname, it seems to me that he knew perfectly well about all this activity — in the Office, about Tsukerman, and, accordingly, even at Mindich’s own apartment. So I hope there’s nothing more to prove here.
And let me also remind you that on July 22, the operation to liquidate NABU and SAPO was led by Andriy Yermak himself, which we have a separate video about, and, I think, is no longer a secret. And what can I say here? I sincerely believe that Andriy Yermak should be dismissed from his position.
Now I will make my appeal to the President in the form of a resolution. And I am obviously convinced that in the Parliament, people will be very afraid even to say this out loud. But yes, the head of the Presidential Office clearly knew about this, could influence it, and it seems he actively supported the whole operation. And, obviously, he must also resign.
Now the bad news. I am convinced that the President absolutely does not want to and will not dismiss him. Moreover, even now my sources say that it’s impossible. And more than that, they say that Andriy Yermak himself for a long time blocked dismissals in this Mindichgate, including Halushchenko, Hrynchuk, and his people. And everyone — without exception — knows that Kuleba is next. Well, he, along with Pronin, has already been exposed in many things and will obviously be exposed further. But they are still protected by Andriy Yermak.
And, to illustrate this point, I’ll show you one more photograph. It was taken during a foreign trip on November 16, I understand somewhere in Athens. Notice who still traveled with the President. To his left, or rather on his right-hand side, is Andriy Yermak. So the person you want to dismiss is obviously someone you wouldn’t take with you on a trip under any circumstances.
So, whether we like it or not, most likely Alibaba, that is Andriy Yermak, and others — I won’t name the surnames — will continue to give orders to law enforcement, weave intrigues against the anti-corruption agencies, and protect themselves as much as possible. And, of course, this does not really help the President’s rating. And, of course, the only correct course of action would be his dismissal.
But, again, I am convinced that the President will hold on to him as much as possible. And, obviously, I don’t expect the President to realize on his own that this is a person who must resign. And that would be the only correct step regarding the whole Mindichgate. If this does not happen, I don’t believe in any changes at all, or any statements about a reset. And the maximum we’ll see, as we’ve seen many times before, is that instead of the removed people, Yermak will appoint someone of his own — Kuleba 2–3, or, as it happened in the Finmon case, replace them with his people. In short, he will take advantage of the situation, and Mindich’s vacuum will definitely be filled with a new vacuum.
It won’t be a triangle anymore, just two people. But, in principle, what difference does that make to us — that’s all.
This was Yaroslav Zheleznyak. This is the “Zaliznyy Nardep” channel. Stay with us, subscribe, and like. Goodbye.”
