A property tied to Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and the country’s lead negotiator on President Trump’s peace plan, was searched on Friday as part of a sweeping corruption investigation.
Mr. Yermak is widely seen as the second most powerful person in Ukraine. The search of the property came after weeks of calls from opposition members of Parliament for Mr. Yermak’s resignation, over his close ties to figures in a corruption scandal that revolves around a kickback scheme involving the state nuclear power company.
The law enforcement scrutiny of Mr. Yermak could disrupt the U.S.-led peace talks and further rattle Ukraine’s domestic politics, even as Russian troops have been making gains on the battlefield.
In a statement issued on Friday, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said it had carried out a search related to Mr. Yermak. But it did not specify any allegations.
Mr. Yermak, a former movie producer and lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, has been a close political ally of Mr. Zelensky throughout the war that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Earlier this week, Mr. Yermak led negotiations with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Geneva.
Even as the talks seized attention in Ukraine and abroad, the corruption investigation loomed over Mr. Yermak and a second Ukrainian negotiator, Rustem Umerov, who was questioned this week by detectives in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, after returning from Geneva.
Peace negotiations involving the United States, Ukraine, Russia and European nations have bogged down after an initial flurry of diplomacy last week, even as the investigation in Ukraine has widened.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has insisted that Ukraine cede territory as a condition for any settlement. In an interview with The Atlantic published on Thursday, Mr. Yermak said that Mr. Zelensky would not sign any document that involved giving up Ukrainian territory.
Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.
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