[UPDATED: May 15, 5:05 pm
, Kyiv time. Supplemented with a November 2024 Telegram update from lawmaker Yevhen Shevchenko]
In a bombshell interview this month with US talk show host Tucker Carlson, President Zelensky’s former spokesperson, Yuliia Mendel, launched a sweeping attack on her former boss, making allegations that range from corruption and authoritarianism to dwindling public trust. Kyiv Post has reviewed the interview and examined several claims tied to verifiable past events, which do not stand up to scrutiny.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Who is Yuliia Mendel? Mendel served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021 after winning a contest for the role. Before joining the presidency, she worked as a journalist and contributor for several Ukrainian and international outlets. After leaving her role in 2021 – in what she said was “good terms” – she published a book titled “The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World” in September 2022. The accusations she made in the latest interview were not present in her book, in which she praised Zelensky as a leader who had transformed Ukraine – for the better. Kyiv Post unpacks a sampling of Mendel’s various claims below. Is Zelensky a dictator? His opponent may think so as a subjective opinion, but Mendel’s arguments do not hold water. During the interview, she used border closure as an example when asked by Carlson whether Zelensky is a dictator. “Well, he is a dictator. The borders have been closed now for four years. It’s illegal. The human rights violation is enormous, the persecution of the people,” she said, referring to martial law restrictions in which military-aged men cannot leave the country.
