Mendel Yulia Volodymyrivna

Former spokesperson for President Zelensky (2019–2021)

Journalist and writer from Henichesk (born September 3, 1986), PhD candidate in Philology (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), internship at Yale. From June 2019 to April 2021 — press secretary of Volodymyr Zelensky, later advisor on international media; author of a book about her experience in the Presidential Office, founder of Mendel Communications. In recent years — a sharp critic of the authorities.

Interview with Tucker Carlson (2026)

On May 11, 2026, her conversation with the pro-Russian former Fox News host was released. Mendel voiced theses that Ukrainian publications and media experts (ZN.ua, Radio Liberty, NV) assessed as close to Kremlin propaganda: she called Zelensky a "hidden evil," claimed that at the Normandy summit (2019) he allegedly promised Putin not to join NATO, and that in Istanbul (2022) the Ukrainian side was supposedly ready to give up Donbas; at the end, she addressed Putin in Russian. Olga Aivazovska noted that Mendel "is quoted by Dmitriev," and the timing coincided with the handing of suspicion to the former head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak. After the interview, Mendel was added to the "Myrotvorets" database; among the stated reasons were spreading Russian propaganda narratives and calls for capitulation. The Presidential Office denied her claims about negotiations, stating she was not involved in them.

Early scandals

As spokesperson, she had conflicts with the press: she pushed away journalist Yulia Zabelina from "Apostrophe," appeared in Danil Yanivskyi's lawsuit regarding obstruction of journalists' work. Journalists exposed discrepancies in her salary: she publicly stated about ~25,000 UAH, while according to the State Administration of Affairs data she received ~53,000 UAH. As early as 2019, on the air of "1+1," she claimed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine supposedly shelled civilian infrastructure in Donbas — a thesis that was criticized as pro-Russian.