Intrigue As Zelenskiy Says He Has Not Signed Chief Of Staff's Resignation Letter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has confirmed that his chief of staff, Andriy Bohdan, has filed his resignation letter just two months after taking the post, but that the president has not signed it.

Zelenskiy made the statement while talking to reporters in Ukraine's western city of Ivano-Frankivsk on August 2 after Interfax Ukraine reported the resignation letter the previous day. Adding to the intrigue, the agency later retracted the story, while Bohdan was not at his office.

"We do not hang on power. We, all the people who came with me, have agreed from the very beginning that we all would write letters of resignation. If the society or president feels that this or that person fails to cope with the goals set for Ukraine, then at any moment, such a person, without holding onto the post, will resign," Zelenskiy said in the statement posted on his press service's website.

Zelenskiy added that "as of today [August 2]" he did not sign Bohdan's letter of resignation and that, if need be, he "can show society all resignation letters written by members of his team."

Deputy chief of the presidential administration, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, denied media reports saying that Bohdan had resigned from the post and the chairman of the presidential Servant of the People party, Dmytro Razumkov, said he had no information regarding the alleged resignation.

Bohdan's appointment, soon after Zelenskiy swept to power with a landslide victory in an April presidential election, was filled with controversy from the beginning.

A comedian with no prior political experience, Zelenskiy has said that one of his main priorities will be "to defeat the corruption that continues to persist in Ukraine."

However, questions remain about how willing he is to break from the oligarch-and-backroom-deals tradition of politicking in Ukraine and his appointment of Bohdan, who has worked as a lawyer for Ukrainian business tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskiy, has worried reformers and some Western supporters.

Kolomoyskiy, one of Ukraine's wealthiest men, owns the TV station that has hosted Zelenskiy's comedy programs and his hit sitcom Servant of The People after which his politcal party was named later.