President Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs former press secretary Yulia Mendel was not allowed into the European Parliament for the German AfD partyʼs event "Ukraine: Dare for Peace. Diplomacy instead of escalation", where she was supposed to be a speaker.
She reported this on Facebook.
She linked this to the sanctions that President Zelensky imposed against her on September 13, and stated that in this way he wanted to prohibit her from talking about peace.
Mendel became Zelenskyʼs press secretary shortly after he took office on June 3, 2019. On April 30, 2021, it was announced that she was stepping down from her position as presidential spokeswoman, a position she had held for nearly two years. She later published two books in which she spoke positively about the president.
However, in 2026, Mendel gave an interview to Tucker Carlson, where she accused Zelensky of using cocaine. At the time, she stated that after the statements she made, it was “dangerous” for her to return home.
The president rejected her statement and said that he had never used drugs.
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