Ukrainians may be tiring but won’t compromise with Putin, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff says

Yermak is seen as Zelenskyy’s right-hand. They even lift weights together in the gym. Some say Yermak is Zelenskyy’s producer, helping the former TV comic perform his biggest role, a life-and-death one played on a global stage. Yermak is nicknamed in Kyiv the “Green Cardinal,” partly because Zelenskyy’s name derives from the word for “green” and because Yermak has copied his boss since Russia launched its invasion and wears now only military-style khaki outfits. Critics dub him Zelenskyy’s éminence grise.

He can be highly diplomatic, and shows his deftness by sidestepping a question about whether Europe should take over from the Americans the leadership of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the 50-nation alliance that coordinates military aid to Kyiv. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has proposed that — a way to Trump-proof the group if the former U.S. president is reelected. "I think it not right to make a choice between our good friends," he says.

While most of Yermak’s long interview with POLITICO in Kyiv was taken up with discussions about geopolitics, he often departs from script — ignoring the briefing notes drafted by staff — and turns personal and peppers the interview with personal reflections.

He talks proudly about his family and how principled his parents are — his father is 78. His mother was born in St Petersburg but has lived for half-a-century in Ukraine; his Jewish father was born in Kyiv, as he was. He shakes his head about the rumor that his father was a KGB officer because he worked for a while in Afghanistan. “He was overseeing some industrial technical training there,” he says. He suspects the rumor was circulated by the Russians.

Yermak, who led Ukraine’s negotiations team with the Russians early in the war, said a deal with Moscow is now utterly impossible.

"The Russians are not interested in any negotiations. They want the capitulation of Ukraine. But it will never happen — all of us who are in Ukraine, we will not accept any compromise on our independence, on our territorial integrity, on our freedom. And this president will never agree to anything like the Minsk agreements or a frozen conflict. No, I'm sure about that,” he added.