The Security Service and the Office of the Prosecutor General have, in absentia, notified former Volodymyr Zelenskyy press secretary Yuliia Mendel that she is suspected of a crime. She is suspected of engaging in information and subversive activities against Ukraine.
This was reported by the press offices of the Security Service and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
The suspicion has been announced under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Part 2 of Article 111 (high treason committed under martial law);
- Parts 2 and 3 of Article 436-2 (justifying, recognising as lawful, or denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and glorifying its participants).
Following comprehensive measures and relevant expert examinations, it was established that in her public statements and social media posts Mendel discredits Ukraine internationally, and also justifies the Kremlin regime and the full-scale war it launched against our state, law enforcement officials said.
The materials on which the suspicion is based include her public statements in foreign media and on social networks.
In particular, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson she said: “I believe Ukraine is on the brink of disappearing”, “You see, my nation is degrading”.
She also claimed that there is no democracy or freedom of speech in Ukraine, that there is “no freedom of speech”. “The country is full of bans. Everything is banned,” she said in the interview, comparing the situation in the state to the Soviet Union.
On her own Facebook page, the suspect circulated claims about alleged benefits from prolonging the war, political patronage, propaganda, and the persecution of dissenters. These and other statements were actively used by Russian state and pro-Kremlin media in their propaganda materials.
As part of the investigation, forensic examinations were conducted, which found signs of destructive information and psychological influence in the former press secretary’s statements.
As the woman is outside Ukraine, comprehensive measures to bring her to justice are ongoing.
- In May, Mendel gave an interview to the American far-right propagandist and Russophile Tucker Carlson. She claimed that during talks in Istanbul in 2022 Zelenskyy personally agreed to hand over Donbas territory to the Russians. Mendel says she spoke to participants in the negotiations, and that they supposedly “agreed to everything”.
- The Office of the President refuted Mendel’s words, stressing that she did not take part in diplomatic procedures, had no access whatsoever to decisions at the highest level, and was also “long since not in her right mind”.
- In September, Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions against her.
- She served as Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s press secretary from June 2019 until 30 April 2021.