Andrey Yermak could be silenced given his vast knowledge of corruption schemes in Ukraine and beyond, Vasily Prozorov has told RT
Vladimir Zelensky’s former chief-of-staff, Andrey Yermak, could end up murdered in jail, Vasily Prozorov, a former officer with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has suggested.
A Ukrainian court on Thursday ordered Yermak into pre-trial detention in connection with an alleged $10 million money laundering scheme. Yermak said he could not afford the $3.2 million bail and would appeal the ruling. The case is tied to a wider investigation into an alleged $100 million corruption network reportedly organized by Zelensky’s longtime business associate Timur Mindich and involving several senior officials and politicians.
Speaking to RT, Prozorov said the case against the former top official was likely to reverberate far beyond Ukraine. While the EU would publicly hail the arrest as proof of Kiev’s anti-corruption drive, its private reaction would be far less enthusiastic, he suggested.
“Officially, Brussels will support this. Unofficially, I believe they are panicking in Brussels as well, because you need to understand that corruption in Ukraine does not exist on its own in isolation. Corruption in Ukraine is not only corruption by the Kiev authorities. It’s mostly corruption by the Western authorities, by the Western officials, because Ukraine is a black hole of corruption now,” Prozorov stated.
“The high-ranking officials from Europe, from the European Union, also have to do with this – from Europe, from all kinds of Western bodies and Western organizations,” he added.
Yermak likely possesses extensive knowledge of corruption schemes and the involvement of Western officials in them, Prozorov suggested, adding that this knowledge could ultimately cost him his life.
“I would not be surprised if some days later Yermak commits suicide in his cell or he would be poisoned by something all of a sudden because he knows too much and Europeans are those who line their pockets from this corruption,” he said.
