The Ukrainian official Washington loves to hate
Amid the pitched political battles that have engulfed Washington over Ukraine, there is one rare point of bipartisan consensus: Everyone has had it with Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The second most powerful man in Ukraine, Yermak has been a particularly frustrating interlocutor for the Trump administration, according to 10 people familiar with his interactions.
Yermak has made regular trips to Washington since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has acted as an intermediary to Ukraine's president. But many in Washington have found Yermak to be uninformed about U.S. politics, abrasive and overly demanding with U.S. officials — and generally unable to navigate the inner workings of the Washington establishment on Capitol Hill. Some also worry he has not accurately conveyed U.S. positions to the leadership back in Ukraine.
POLITICO spoke to 14 people for this story, including congressional aides, former U.S. and Ukrainian officials and others informed of Yermak's interactions in Washington. Most of those interviewed were granted anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive diplomatic matters.
One of the people familiar with Yermak's interactions with the Trump administration described him as a 'bipartisan irritator.'
Yermak's behavior, many fear, is increasingly threatening the already fraught relationship between Ukraine and the Trump administration at a critical juncture with Kyiv reliant on U.S. support to defend against Russia's ongoing attacks. President Donald Trump has largely been deferential to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he has sought to push Ukraine into peace talks with Moscow.
Yermak said in a statement provided by his spokesperson that he was doing everything possible to protect Ukraine's sovereignty and security.
'If that means being considered 'challenging' by others — so be it. I will wait many more hours outside any door if that helps my country and my president's mission,' he said. 'I have no ambition to fully grasp how American politics works — I come to speak about the country I know best: Ukraine.'
Zelenskyy missed out on a planned meeting with Trump at the G7 this week, as the U.S. president abandoned the summit early, citing escalating tensions in the Middle East.
It is still unclear whether Zelenskyy will get another chance to meet with Trump at the NATO summit next week. Ukraine's plight is expected to feature less prominently at the meeting of the defense alliance compared to recent years, as leaders of the alliance seek to avoid a blow up with Trump.
Biden administration officials were also frustrated by Yermak, but they were largely able to compartmentalize their exasperation given the urgency of the war and Washington's pivotal role in bolstering Kyiv's defenses against a Russian onslaught, according to a former senior Biden administration official and three other people familiar with the U.S.-Ukraine relationship at the time.
The Trump administration is not feeling as accommodating.
On a last minute trip to Washington at the beginning of June, Yermak struggled to secure meetings with senior Trump administration officials, according to five people familiar with the visit, some of whom had direct knowledge of scheduling issues.
The Zelenskyy aide came without a clear agenda, and the feedback from those who he did meet with was 'we don't know why he's here,' one of the people familiar with the visit said.
A meeting between Yermak and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was canceled at the last minute, the person said.
But, they said, Yermak ended up bumping into Rubio, who also serves as acting national security adviser, in the White House.
The Ukrainian official posted a photo of the encounter on X, stating that the two discussed the situation on the battlefield and Ukraine's urgent need for air defense.
Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles kept Yermak waiting in the White House before canceling, the first person familiar with the visit said, while Vice President JD Vance's office never responded to a request for a meeting.
The White House, the State Department and the vice president's office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Oleksiy Tkachuk, a spokesperson for Yermak, pushed back against the way the trip was described to POLITICO and said that Yermak met with Rubio in his office at the White House and that a meeting with Wiles went ahead as planned but was shorter than initially expected.
A White House official said that Wiles did not meet with Yermak during his June visit.
Tkachuk said that the principal objective of the trip, in which Yermak was accompanied by a delegation of senior Ukrainian officials, was to conduct a high-level closed briefing for members of the U.S. Senate about the state of the war and the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and to discuss the imposition of further sanctions on Russia.
People familiar with Kyiv's relationship with its most important partner characterized Yermak's interactions with both administrations as tense and difficult. They said that Yermak, a former movie producer, still struggles to navigate the corridors of power in Washington almost six years since he rose to become Zelenskyy's closest aide.
'He thought, for example, that the critical minerals agreement was so important for Trump that it would gain Ukraine the security guarantees in exchange for it,' said a second person familiar with the trip, referring to a joint investment fund that is expected to give the U.S. access to Ukraine's vast mineral deposits. The person described the notion as 'ludicrous.'
Speaking to allies in private, Yermak has accused Trump administration officials of being Russian assets, according to the first person familiar with the visit, including Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has met with Putin four times as Trump seeks to cajole Moscow to the negotiating table.
People familiar with the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and Kyiv's backers in Washington fear that the friction wrought by Yermak could quickly spread to undermine his country's standing with its most vital partner.
'There is a serious mistrust with the Zelenskyy administration at this moment. Kyiv's inability to understand U.S. political dynamics is having a caustic effect,' said Ron Wahid, chair of the strategic intelligence firm Arcanum Global. He has served as an unofficial adviser to the Ukraine peace talks.
'Zelenskyy needs to make an earnest effort to reset the relationship, and this will not happen by haphazard trips to Washington without any real agenda,' Wahid said.
Yermak's visit wasn't entirely fruitless. He met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill as well as Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg. He also met with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The person familiar with Yermak's interactions with the Trump administration said that they were told that Yermak was 'uncharacteristically cooperative and helpful' during the visit.
Nonetheless, Yermak was 'extremely frustrated,' with the results, according to the first person informed of the visit.
The visit was 'a disaster from the Ukrainian perspective,' said the second person familiar with the trip, who described Yermak as an 'existential liability' for Ukraine.
People familiar with Zelenskyy's relationship with Yermak characterized it as a co-dependency. Some have said they fear that the Ukrainian leader will not be persuaded to curb Yermak's influence.
The future of U.S. assistance to Ukraine has been thrown into question since the reelection of Trump, who has shown a clear preference for working with world leaders that can flatter and fête him.
A person familiar with the administration's thinking described Yermak as acting as if Ukraine was at the 'center of the world,' adding 'it has already affected the relationship.'
Trump 'always talks about how their words and actions aren't helpful,' the person said.
David Arakhamia, a Ukrainian lawmaker and chair of Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party in the Ukrainian parliament, defended Yermak's recent trip to Washington, describing it as a success.
He characterized Yermak as 'essential, not just because he works closely with the president, but because of his contacts, skills and diplomatic experience.'
The Trump administration has struggled to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, now in its third year.
Trump has put more pressure on Ukraine than Russia to come to the negotiating table, temporarily cutting off military aid and intelligence support in March following a dramatic showdown with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February.
Zelenskyy also at times frustrated the Biden administration with increasing demands for military aid. On at least one occasion, former President Joe Biden is reported to have lost his temper with Zelenskyy, urging him to show a little more gratitude.
The former senior Biden administration official described the relationship with Zelenskyy's lieutenant as 'difficult,' adding that Yermak didn't understand the finer points of diplomacy.
Yermak is known to tightly control access to the Ukrainian president, multiple people familiar with the relationship said. During the Biden administration, officials worried about Yermak filtering Zelenskyy's messages to them, and vice versa.
But the more sympathetic Biden White House was prepared to go out of its way to work more with Yermak and even to help him to define what he should be asking of Washington and what arguments to make, according to a former Ukrainian cabinet minister.
Nonetheless, there were frustrations with Yermak, and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken — as well as the former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink — asked more than once for Yermak to not always be physically present when they sat down with the Ukrainian president.
A spokesperson for Brink denied that she had ever requested Yermak be excluded from meetings. The spokesperson noted that U.S. officials do not determine who, from a foreign government, gets to attend a meeting. A spokesperson for Blinken did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Their requests were vehemently rejected by Zelenskyy, the former minister added, and confirmed to POLITICO by a former Ukrainian security official.
Yermak's behavior may only embolden voices in the Republican party and Trump allies who are keen to see an end to U.S. support for Ukraine, the second person familiar with the visit argued.
'All the people here who want to withdraw and abandon Ukraine are thrilled to have Yermak around,' the person said.
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