How Iuliia Mendel went from defending Zelensky to echoing Kremlin-friendly narratives

Iuliia Mendel has been all-in in her attempt to discredit her former boss, President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him "a dictator" and "the greatest obstacle to peace" in Ukraine.

Just four years after publishing a book heaping praise on Zelensky, the former press secretary appeared on right-wing U.S. podcaster Tucker Carlson's show on May 11, speaking on how her home country is corrupt, the president may be a drug addict, and speculated that he was willing to give up Ukrainian territory during the full-scale war.

For many Ukrainians — including longtime vocal critics of Zelensky — the interview was seen as extremely damaging to Ukraine's cause.

"Pretending to be the 'insider,' when no longer witnessing peace negotiations, she promoted (on Carlson's show) serious allegations blaming Ukraine and Western partners for sabotaging peace," disinformation researcher Alyona Hurkivska told the Kyiv Independent.

"This interview does not just echo Russian narratives — it is intertextual propaganda, repeating them 'within.' Mendel offers a picture where Ukraine is depicted as a weak, zero-agency, corrupt, and hopeless country with no future, no will to defend, and (U.S. President Donald) Trump is right in his hesitation to support Ukraine."

Although Mendel told Carlson that Zelensky is "inconsistent" with his views, the recollection of her firsthand accounts from working with him are notably different from those described in her 2022 book "The Fight of Our Lives: My Time With Zelensky, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What it Means for the World."

In the book, Mendel called Zelensky "a breath of fresh air" who "provided hope (to people) that had not existed for a long time."

Zelensky was "a meritocrat by nature and relentless about proving himself," Mendel wrote just four years back.

Mendel stepped down as Zelensky's press secretary in the summer of 2021, over half a year before the start of Russia's all-out war. Even today, she says she parted with the president on "good terms."

In the years since her ousting, however, Mendel became one of the most vocal critics of Zelensky on social media, often covering her dissatisfaction with her former employer with layers of unconfirmed and often misleading claims echoing Russian narratives.

Carlson has advertised her appearance on his show as "the end of" Zelensky's political career.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Carlson has repeatedly told his viewers that Russia is "not the enemy" of the U.S., described Kyiv's efforts to limit the Kremlin-controlled church as "persecution of Christians," claimed that NATO expansion and Western policies somehow "provoked" Russia to invade, and questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine's leadership.

He has interviewed a number of guests who have reinforced these narratives to his millions of viewers — including Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

While Carlson is known for promoting pro-Russian talking points on his show, when the Kyiv Independent raised this with Mendel, she only responded, "it's very easy to label someone pro-Kremlin if you criticize Zelensky," adding that Carlson was "smart" and that she had reached out to him for the interview to get her message out.

Carlson didn't challenge any of Mendel's talking points during the interview, including the ones that veered into sensational or hard-to-substantiate territory. On the subject of Zelensky's alleged drug use, for example, Mendel admitted she had never seen him use drugs herself, but still told Carlson it was "an open secret."

Mendel wrapped up the interview by speaking directly to Putin in Russian, appealing to his self-image as "a man of God." She told him that both Ukraine and Russia are suffering because "Slavs are killing Slavs" — a reference to the "brotherly nations" narrative promoted by Russia — and pleaded with him to end the war, essentially casting the very man who started it as Ukraine's best hope for peace.

Ukraine continues to face serious challenges at the national level, and even in the midst of full-scale war, Ukrainians have staged protests against unpopular government initiatives, while independent Ukrainian media have reported in-depth on major corruption scandals, including those involving members of Zelensky's own inner circle.

It is important to talk about these issues, but some of them were presented in a way by Mendel that made it seem Zelensky's government is solely at fault for the problems in Ukraine.

On the topic of Ukrainian pensioners and the extremely limited financial support they receive from the state, Mendel recounted stories of those who died last winter, suffering from hunger and cold in their own homes. Yet she omitted a crucial fact — the mass Russian bombardment of Ukraine's energy infrastructure during that time, which made an already brutal winter even more devastating.

When pressed by the Kyiv Independent on this, she dismissed the omission, saying "everybody (already) knows" that Russia was bombing the energy infrastructure, and that leaving it out doesn't excuse their war crimes.

"I stand by every word," she said. "I think that the enormous corruption in the country and around President Zelensky is the biggest damage to Ukraine."

Mendel's portrayal of life in Ukraine also didn't fully correspond to the reality of what's happening on the ground. She told Carlson that "everything is banned" now in Ukraine and claims that "all the cars need to stop at 9 a.m. on the roads to listen to the hymn," calling it "a really strange agenda" and saying it "looks surreal."

In reality, she's referring to the daily minute of silence at 9 a.m., when people across the country voluntarily pause to honor those killed by Russia.

After a law was signed this spring to formalize the established wartime tradition, disinformation about it quickly spread online. In truth, the law only requires authorities to announce when the minute of silence begins and ends — there are no penalties stipulated for not participating.

Mendel's main message has been that Ukrainians are desperate for peace and that Ukraine needs to be ready to surrender some of its territory and accept a peace deal.

The Kyiv Independent asked Mendel how the Russian military, which commits such atrocities as "human safari" in her native Kherson Oblast, could be trusted to adhere to any peace deal.

In reply, she only said that the "human safari" is "one of the most disgusting things in the war" and that it should be stopped "whether there is a peace deal or not" without addressing the issue of holding Russia accountable.

Mendel is the highest-profile former Ukrainian official to turn to right-wing U.S. podcasters to get her message out, but she's not alone. In December 2024, Oleksiy Arestovych, a controversial former advisor to the President's Office, appeared on Iranian-American businessman Patrick Bet-David's show.

Like Mendel, Arestovych cast himself as the "true voice" of Ukraine and claimed he had to leave the country to avoid political persecution. He also portrayed Zelensky as a dictator, argued that Putin was more trustworthy than Zelensky, and put forward the idea that peace deals had been deliberately sabotaged — by Ukraine.

Although they once spoke out in support of Ukraine, their current talking points are almost similar to those of figures like Diana Panchenko — a former journalist for a media outlet owned by Putin's close friend and ally — Viktor Medvedchuk — who now resides in Russia.

Mendel first hinted at the interview with Carlson on her Substack back in late February, but it was released only now, at what seems like yet another pivotal moment for Ukraine, when relations with the U.S. have once again cooled and Russia expresses little interest in pursuing a peace deal that doesn't result in Ukraine's capitulation.

"Unfortunately, (Mendel's) interview may impact the discourse (in the U.S.), affecting the reality of future uncertainty among Americans to support Ukraine, who would believe the image promoted by Mendel," Hurkivska said.

"It serves to justify any peace solution that Trump or anyone would offer, regardless of the sacrifices it entails for Ukraine. Tucker Carlson is a smart choice for this matter, having created a complementary environment where Mendel's claims go unchallenged as long as they align with Trump's negotiation strategy."