Former Ukrainian presidential press secretary Yulia Mendel gave a high-profile interview to American journalist Tucker Carlson in which she made a number of statements about the war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, NATO, and Russia. Her remarks sparked a wave of criticism among Ukrainian journalists, communications specialists, and media experts, NV reports.
At the beginning of the interview, published on May 11 on Tucker Carlson’s YouTube channel, Mendel said that she “did not come to justify the Russian invasion” and “does not justify Putin,” but added that the war “is no longer black and white.” The former presidential spokeswoman then voiced a number of claims and assumptions about the war and the Ukrainian government.
During the conversation, Mendel stated that “the only way to support Ukraine today is to push it toward a peace agreement.” At the same time, she called Vladimir Putin “evil” but also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being “evil.” According to her, Zelenskyy allegedly “plays a teddy bear for the camera,” but “turns into a grizzly bear when the lights go out” and “destroys people.”
Mendel also claimed that during the Istanbul negotiations in 2022, Zelenskyy had allegedly agreed to give Donbas to Russia, but that this was prevented by the visit of then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kyiv. At the same time, the report notes that Mendel did not participate in those negotiations and had no connection to them.
Another controversial statement was Mendel’s claim that in 2019 Zelenskyy had allegedly promised Putin that Ukraine would never join NATO. According to her, this happened during the Normandy summit in Paris.
In addition, Mendel said that the war had allegedly “lost its meaning” for Ukrainians and that “there is no democracy in Ukraine now.” She also claimed that Zelenskyy is “emotionally uncontrollable,” “changes masks,” and “lacks empathy.” Responding to Carlson’s question about whether the Ukrainian president uses narcotic substances, Mendel hinted that it was “an open secret.”
At the end of the interview, Mendel addressed Vladimir Putin in Russian, calling on him to stop the “drone safari” against residents of Kherson. At the same time, she described the war as “a war without a winner,” in which “Slavs are killing Slavs,” and suggested that Putin may not know about crimes committed by the Russian army in Kherson.
Ukraine’s Presidential Office responded to Mendel’s statements and denied her claims that Kyiv had supposedly been ready to cede Donbas territories in 2022. Officials said that she “did not participate in the negotiations, did not participate in decision-making,” and “was not involved in the negotiation process.” The Presidential Office also questioned the credibility of her statements.
The interview provoked a sharp reaction among Ukrainian journalists and media professionals. Strategic communications expert Volodymyr Anfimov said that Mendel had effectively placed “an equal sign between Zelenskyy and Putin” and promoted the narrative that Ukraine itself does not want the war to end. He called this “openly harmful rhetoric for the country.”
Journalist Yanina Sokolova said that Mendel had “surpassed even Russian propaganda” in her statements. Detector Media editor-in-chief Nataliya Ligachova described the interview as “a stream of trash,” while Fakty ICTV editor-in-chief Danylo Romanchuk wrote that he had “never seen anything so vile and pathetic” in all his years of work.
