Yuliia Mendel, President Zelensky’s former press secretary, made a series of serious claims in a Tucker Carlson interview, ranging from wartime governance and NATO policy to alleged corruption and mobilization abuses, many of which are disputed or lack independent verification.
by Kyiv Post | May 15, 2026
(Left) Yuliia Mendel, a former press secretary of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and US talk host Tuck Carlson (right) during a Tucker Carlson interview published on May 12, 2026. (Screenshot from the video Tucker Carlson / YouTube)
- Who is Yuliia Mendel?
- Is Zelensky a dictator?
- Were lawmakers arrested for treason for speaking out?
- Is Zelensky sending men to the front as punishment?
- Did Ukraine agree to give up Donbas in 2022?
- Did Zelensky promise Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO?
- Did Zelensky use drugs?
[UPDATED: May 15, 5:05 pm , Kyiv time. Supplemented with a November 2024 Telegram update from lawmaker Yevhen Shevchenko]
In a bombshell interview this month with US talk show host Tucker Carlson, President Zelensky’s former spokesperson, Yuliia Mendel, launched a sweeping attack on her former boss, making allegations that range from corruption and authoritarianism to dwindling public trust.
Kyiv Post has reviewed the interview and examined several claims tied to verifiable past events, which do not stand up to scrutiny.
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Who is Yuliia Mendel?
Mendel served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021 after winning a contest for the role.
Before joining the presidency, she worked as a journalist and contributor for several Ukrainian and international outlets. After leaving her role in 2021 – in what she said was “good terms” – she published a book titled “The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World” in September 2022.
The accusations she made in the latest interview were not present in her book, in which she praised Zelensky as a leader who had transformed Ukraine – for the better.
Kyiv Post unpacks a sampling of Mendel’s various claims below.
Is Zelensky a dictator?
His opponent may think so as a subjective opinion, but Mendel’s arguments do not hold water.
During the interview, she used border closure as an example when asked by Carlson whether Zelensky is a dictator.
“Well, he is a dictator. The borders have been closed now for four years. It’s illegal. The human rights violation is enormous, the persecution of the people,” she said, referring to martial law restrictions in which military-aged men cannot leave the country.
The border-closure argument is flawed because this limitation is part of the martial law restrictions signed before Zelensky entered office: The Constitution allows freedom of movement to be limited by law in wartime; martial law then permits temporary restriction of rights for defense purposes, and mobilization laws define who is eligible for military service and therefore subject to travel limits.
The government also eased the rule in 2025 to allow men aged 18-22 to leave the country – while there are also diplomatic discussions to bring military-age males home, but that’s a different story.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky holds the presidential stamp during his inauguration ceremony at the parliament in Kyiv on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
As for whether Zelensky’s a dictator – a claim amplified by US President Donald Trump in 2025 – Ukraine’s continued elections before the war, functioning parliament, and wartime legal framework do not support it.
Zelensky was elected with 73% of the popular vote in 2019, while a recent poll conducted in April 2026 suggests that public trust in Zelensky among Ukrainians remains at 58% – a modest decline from March, when 62% expressed trust and 32% distrust.
Were lawmakers arrested for treason for speaking out?
Lawmakers were arrested, but not for that reason.
When accusing Zelensky of being a dictator, Mendel said a lawmaker was arrested in 2024 for speaking out against the war.
“In 2024, when Donald Trump came to power, there was a member of parliament who wrote on Telegram, ‘Zelensky, now we need to stop this war. And yes, you will lose the next elections, but stop this war’,” Mendel said.
Trump won the 2024 election in November and returned to office in January 2025.
“And [the lawmaker] was in jail in three days. He’s still in jail,” she continued, adding that the individual was supposedly arrested for treason.
Who might that be?
Between 2024-25, two lawmakers were notably arrested for treason – Yevhen Shevchenko and Oleksandr Dubinsky. Neither has been convicted as of April 2026.
Mendel likely referred to Shevchenko.
Yevhen Shevchenko
Shevchenko has long been a controversial figure due to his ties and public remarks about Moscow’s ally Belarus. He previously praised Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and, in 2021, suggested that a third of Ukrainians could support him as president.
Ukrainian lawmaker Yevhen Shevchenko (center) surrounded by law enforcement officers in his apartment after he was indicted for fraud and treason in November 2025. (Photo via Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation)
Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) later alleged that he was used as an informal channel to the Belarusian leadership after 2022 to help manage tensions, though the agency later walked back on those claims.
On Nov. 7 2024, shortly after Trump’s election victory, Shevchenko called on Zelensky to “start a dialogue” – with phrasing that matched Mendel’s description.
“Come on, Vova, come on! It’s time, Comrade President, to start a dialogue. I understand that after this you’ll have to leave. But the country is more important than personal ambitions,” Shevchenko wrote.
“I’ll help if anything comes up. I’ll go to Minsk again. We’ll sort everything out. Just get started,” he added.
Shevchenko was detained on Nov. 14, 2024, on treason charges and received indictments in 2025.
“In public speeches, he promoted theses about the alleged ‘collapse of Ukrainian statehood,’ the loss of territories, and the government’s inability to achieve peace,” reads a 2025 press release issued by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), without directly naming Shevchenko.
“He also argued that Ukraine would not be able to win and must negotiate with the Russian Federation under any conditions,” it adds.
Oleksandr Dubinsky
Dubinsky was charged with high treason in 2023 for his alleged links to a Russian subversive group, with authorities accusing him of operating under Russia’s Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) to “destabilize the socio-political situation in Ukraine and discredit our state in the international arena.”
Ukraine lawmaker of the “Servant of People” ruling party, Oleksandr Dubinsky, gives a press conference in Kyiv on Jan. 18, 2021. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)
In 2025, after Zelensky’s notorious clash with Trump at the White House, Dubinsky called for Zelensky’s impeachment.
“Zelensky’s cattle-like behavior, as well as his refusal to discuss a ceasefire and a peace plan, have real consequences,” Dubinsky wrote at the time.
If Mendel was referring to Dubinsky, the argument was flawed as he was charged with treason in 2023 – and not for speaking against Zelensky.
Separately, Dubinsky was also sanctioned by the US in 2021 for attempting to influence the 2020 US election via a “Russia-linked disinformation network.”
Is Zelensky sending men to the front as punishment?
Mobilization has been a pain point in Ukraine, but there is no evidence that critics of Zelensky were sent to fight on the front lines.
“I would never think that my country would be the one where people are grabbed on the streets and forced to the front lines. I would never think that we all agree and stay silent to the fact that Zelensky uses front line as the punishment,” Mendel said, adding that Zelensky openly said so.
Carlson then pressed if she knew someone who experienced it, to which she said there were “people from the security services who were sent publicly and there were a few people who were sent there.”
Mendel is likely conflating two different ideas in her example – officials sent to the front, and ordinary Ukrainians mobilized from the streets.
Ilya Vityuk at the Kyiv International Cybersecurity Forum in 2024. (Photo by Kateryna Zakarchenko / Kyiv Post)
The first idea likely refers to Ilya Vityuk, the former head of cyber security at Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU), who was later reassigned to frontline duty after allegations emerged that the SBU had pressured a journalist investigating corruption claims involving him.
According to reports, an SBU officer allegedly instructed a military official to issue a mobilization notice to the journalist.
Another point mentioned by Mendel is what’s called “busification” in Ukraine, a term that describes the forceful detention of military-age males in public, who are then transported via minibuses to recruitment centers for immediate mobilization.
The practice has long been contentious as the war stretches into its fifth year. Zelensky reportedly instructed his new defense minister to address the issue earlier this year, but the core tension remains: Ukraine needs manpower to defend the country.
Did Ukraine agree to give up Donbas in 2022?
Not according to available evidence.
A core theme in Mendel’s interview is that the war is dragging on because Zelensky refuses to negotiate – which she backs up by her claim that the president agreed to cede the Donbas region in 2022 and could have ended the war by now.
“I spoke with people who represented Ukraine at the Istanbul negotiations in 2022,” Mendel said. “And they explained to me in detail that they agreed to everything. Moreover – and this is very important – they said that Zelensky personally agreed to give up Donbas.”
Members of the Ukrainian delegation attend the talks with Russian negotiators, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29, 2022. (Photo via Ukrainian Presidential Press Service)
Conceding the Donbas region was supposedly discussed during multiple rounds of 2022 peace talks, though it remains unclear whether any agreement was reached.
During the negotiations, Ukraine reportedly offered neutrality in exchange for security guarantees and the return of annexed territories. However, one draft following the March 29 talks in Istanbul reportedly envisioned Russian withdrawals from several Ukrainian regions while leaving Crimea and the Donbas under Moscow’s control, according to local outlet European Pravda at the time.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said Crimea’s status would be revisited after 15 years. The talks ultimately collapsed and fighting resumed, while Kyiv has denied agreeing to concede the Donbas region.
The current Presidential Office also told journalists that Mendel played no part in the 2022 negotiations after the Carlson interview went live.
Did Zelensky promise Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO?
No one knows for certain – but that hardly matters.
“I was present at [Zelensky’s] meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2019 in Paris. There were very few people near him who knew the truth. He had a private conversation with Putin where he promised Putin that Ukraine will never join NATO,” Mendel said.
The meeting she referred to was what’s called the Normandy format summit at the Élysée Palace – the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelensky after Zelensky’s 2019 election victory.
From L: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a meeting on Ukraine with German Chancellor at the Elysee Palace, on Dec. 9, 2019 in Paris. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / AFP)
She later also argued that Ukraine “was never close” to NATO membership, adding that Zelensky was “pushing an impossible agenda and making it a condition for peace.”
The conversation with Putin might well have taken place, but it hardly matters because Ukraine signed it into the Constitution months earlier, and the Kremlin’s pre-2022 ultimatum goes beyond Ukraine’s NATO bid.
Former President Petro Poroshenko signed the constitutional amendment in February 2019 to include Ukraine’s NATO membership bid, while Putin’s pre-2022 ultimatum to Washington included demands that NATO withdraw from Eastern Europe and that Ukraine’s membership bid be barred.
In short, Ukraine enshrined its NATO aspirations in the Constitution before Zelensky became president. And NATO or not, Russia could still find a reason to justify the invasion officially.
Kyiv has repeatedly said NATO membership is the only credible security guarantee against future Russian aggression, pointing to the failure of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
Mendel has called NATO membership unrealistic but has not clearly outlined the alternatives for Ukraine.
Did Zelensky use drugs?
More sensational accusations – including alleged drug use and claims that Zelensky ordered Mendel to produce Nazi-style “Goebbels propaganda” – were excluded from this analysis, as they remain unsubstantiated and allegedly took place behind closed doors, with no concrete evidence beyond Mendel’s statements.
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Carlson interview clip with comment from the KI :
Mendel tells Fucker Karlsonov that Zel is “evil.”
She chooses to make that absurd allegation to an open nazi and Jew-hater who wants Ukraine and Ukrainians DEAD.
The only question is whether she was infiltrated by the putler regime (she got her job by winning a competition), or has she done a switch?
If so, is that switch ideologically or financially motivated?
Obviously forensic accountants will need to probe her finances and the SBU will need to investigate her connections very thoroughly.