In Friday’s post on social media, Zelensky wrote: “At this time, Ukraine needs greater focus on security issues, the development of the defence and security forces of Ukraine, as well as on the diplomatic track of negotiations. <\/p>\n
“Kyrylo has specialist experience in these areas and sufficient strength to deliver results.” <\/p>\n
The president added that he had already instructed his new office chief to update and present key documents regarding “the strategic foundations” of Ukraine’s defence.<\/p>\n
Yermak, 54, stepped down on 28 November, and his departure was seen as a major blow to Zelensky.<\/p>\n
Yermak quit shortly after his home in Kyiv was raided by the country’s anti-corruption agencies. <\/p>\n
He is not accused of any wrongdoing, and the anti-corruption bureau Nabu and specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office Sapo did not explain why they searched his property. <\/p>\n
In the past few months investigators have linked several high-profile figures to an alleged $100m (\u00a375m) embezzlement scandal in the energy sector. <\/p>\n
They said they had uncovered an extensive scheme to take kickbacks and influence state-owned companies including state nuclear energy firm Enerhoatom.<\/p>\n
The corruption scandal has rocked Ukraine, weakening Zelensky’s own position and jeopardising the country’s negotiating position at a delicate time.<\/p>\n
Kyiv, backed by its European allies, is seeking to change the terms of a US-led draft peace plan originally seen as heavily slanted towards Russia.<\/p>\n
Russian officials have seized on the scandal, talking up corruption claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Friday’s post on social media, Zelensky wrote: “At this time, Ukraine needs greater focus on security issues,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-669250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115826275493207521","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}