EU says it highly respects probes into Zelenskyy's top aide Yermak

European Commission Chief Spokesperson Paula Pinho has said that current anti-corruption investigations in Ukraine, particularly searches targeting senior officials such as Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, show that Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies are working.

The European Commission welcomes anti-corruption investigations that involve Ukraine's highest-ranking officials.

"Indeed, we understand that there are ongoing investigations, and we have a lot of respect for those investigations which show that the anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine are doing their work," Pinho and Guillaume Mercier, European Commission Spokesperson for Enlargement, International Partnerships and the Mediterranean, said, speaking to journalists in Brussels.

Pinho stressed that this shows precisely that "the anti-corruption body is actually in place and allowed to function".

Mercier added that the "fight against corruption is a key element for a country to join the EU".

"It requires continuous efforts and a strong capacity to fight corruption. This is a key element that we also address in our enlargement report that was published a couple of weeks ago. So, we will continue to follow the situation very closely," Mercier added.

It was reported earlier that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) are conducting searches at the office of Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in the government district on the morning of 28 November.

Later, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office officially confirmed that they are conducting searches at Yermak's office.

European Pravda reported earlier that Poland has said corruption investigations in Ukraine are "bad news" from the Polish point of view, as they do not make the current peace talks any easier.