President Volodymyr Zelensky denied in an interview with Bloomberg published on July 4 that his office's head, Andriy Yermak, is concentrating too much power in his hands.
Yermak has led Zelensky's office since February 2020 and has been described by the Washington Post as "arguably the most powerful chief of staff in Ukraine's history."
"Yermak is a strong manager, one of the strongest managers on my team," Zelensky said in response to a question about his chief of office's powerful role.
"I respect him for his results, he does what I tell him," the president said, adding that attacks against Yermak are ultimately aimed at Zelensky himself.
Zelensky also said that Russia launched a number of disinformation campaigns to depict the head of state as weak and without control over the government.
The Times wrote in June that several undisclosed senior officials in Ukraine expressed concern about Zelensky's growing dependence on Yermak, with some describing the latter as "de facto head of state" or "Ukraine's vice-president."
According to Zelensky, attacks against his team are a first step to weaken the president himself.
"A weak president of Ukraine is an opportunity to tear off half of the territories from Ukraine, it is an opportunity to stop Ukraine on its way to joining the European Union, it is an opportunity to shut my mouth, an opportunity to have another person at the head of Ukraine," Zelensky said.
In connection to the topic, Zelensky said that Russia has long sought to destroy the president as part of their occupation plan but added that "not only Russians are dissatisfied with me" and "not only the Russians want a weak president of Ukraine."
Zelensky did not specify who these other adversaries might be.
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