Eleanor Beardsley

Anti-corruption officials searched Yermak's house as part of their investigation into the siphoning off of $100 million from the state nuclear power agency.

Yermak's experience dealing with the Trump administration will be missed, but he was becoming a liability.

Russia wants Ukraine to make mistakes, said Zelensky.

There will be no mistakes on our part.

Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv.

This is fallout from an unfolding and very explosive corruption scandal that broke in mid-November about the siphoning off of at least $100 million tied to energy sector contracts.

And exposed by Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Bureau, so far eight officials, some close to Zelensky are under investigation and two have fled the country.

But more heads could roll.

Zelensky himself is not implicated, but there are huge suspicions around his right-hand man, Andriy Yermak.

He's a former film producer.

He goes way back with Zelensky, a business partner in Zelensky's TV days before being elected president of Ukraine in 2019.

And he's really been Zelensky's right-hand man in office.

And the two are close personal friends.

They've basically lived in close quarters in the presidential compound behind the sandbags.

They're said to even work out together, watch movies together to lower their stress.

But over time, Yermak has amassed a lot of power.

He basically ran the executive office.

Everything went through him.

and a majority of Ukrainians are happy about his resignation.

In a video posted to social media, Zelensky said Ukraine must be strong and unified as it heads into peace negotiations with the Trump administration in the coming days.