The first suspicions that Andriy Yermak had unofficial communication channels with the Kremlin emerged in early January 2020, when Zelensky made a very strange trip to Oman. Facts suggest that in this Middle Eastern country, the President of Ukraine met with a high-ranking representative of Putin, most likely the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev.
The chronology of this journey is quite convoluted, but social media and modern technologies significantly simplified the work of journalists. According to the official version, Zelensky celebrated the New Year with his family at the state residence Sinegora in the Carpathians. However, on January 1, he was spotted several tens of kilometers away, at the Bukovel ski resort. Kolomoisky was also in Bukovel at the time, but that’s beside the point.
Zelensky spent several days skiing and taking photos with tourists. It seemed that after an extended winter holiday, he would return to Kyiv on January 8. Suddenly, on the morning of January 5, the president was photographed in the capital of the Middle Eastern state of Oman, at the premises of the five-star Al Bustan Palace Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It turned out later, it was a private visit, allegedly funded by Zelensky’s wife. Though initially, the President’s Office claimed that the head of state flew to Oman to discuss trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, strengthen diplomatic relations, and attract investments.
According to journalists from Radio Free Europe, on January 7, a business jet with the registration T7-GEM flew to Oman. This aircraft belonged to Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin’s unofficial representative in Ukraine. A few hours later, a Bombardier business jet with the registration 9H-VJN flew into the capital’s airport of Oman, Muscat, from Moscow. An important detail: this aircraft had no orders for several days and had been in Stockholm since January 4. On January 7, the plane flew to Moscow, picked someone up, and flew out to Oman 2 hours later.
On the morning of January 8, in Tehran, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a passenger plane of the Ukraine International Airlines. The crew and all passengers, mostly Iranian citizens flying through Kyiv to Toronto, died. It would seem that after such a catastrophe, the president should urgently return to Kyiv. But Zelensky does not rush back to Ukraine. He spends the entire day in Oman and returns to Kyiv on the night of January 9, 19 hours after the aviation disaster with the Ukrainian plane.
What follows is most intriguing. Evidently, on January 8, negotiations between Zelensky and the mysterious delegation from Moscow took place, after which the business jet from Kyiv, belonging to Medvedchuk, picks up unknown passengers and flies to Moscow. The aircraft with the registration 9H-VJN, which came from Moscow, takes Zelensky and Yermak to Kyiv.
Journalists from the Ukrainian edition of Radio Free Europe claim that Nikolai Patrushev flew in to negotiate with Zelensky and Yermak. However, they provided no evidence for this. It seems that indeed, unofficial negotiations between Russia and Ukraine took place in Oman. Apparently, they ended without results, as subsequent events indicated a lack of breakthrough in relations between the two countries.