Yermak taken to pretrial detention center following court’s arrest ruling

Former head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office Andriy Yermak has been taken to a pretrial detention center after a Kyiv court ordered him held in custody for 60 days.

The news was reported by Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksandr Dubinsky, who has been held at Kyiv’s Lukyanivske pretrial detention center since 2023.

“Yermak has arrived at the detention center. Your prison correspondent, O. Dubinsky,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.

The court in Kyiv issued the ruling with the option of release on bail of approximately €2.7 million (140 million hryvnias). Yermak stated that he does not have the funds to post such an amount, but is counting on help from friends. After speaking with journalists, he was taken into custody right in the corridor of the courthouse.

Yermak is a defendant in a case involving the laundering of approximately €8.9 million (460 million hryvnias) in connection with the construction of a premium-class cottage settlement on the outskirts of Kyiv. On the evening of May 11, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office charged him under articles covering the laundering of criminally obtained assets committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale.

According to anti-corruption authorities, in 2020 a project to build private residences called “Dynastiya” was launched, in which investigators allege Yermak participated. The former head of Zelensky’s office faces up to 15 years in prison.