Ukraine's Security Service and Prosecutor General's Office charged Iuliia Mendel, press secretary to Volodymyr Zelensky from 2019 to 2021, with treason in absentia on November 3, the Kyiv Independent reported. The agencies accused her of "information and subversive activities against Ukraine." Mendel, now a critic of Zelensky, said the case was based on her public statements in Western media and on social media.
Ukraine's Security Service and Prosecutor General's Office have formally accused Zelensky's former press secretary of treason under martial law, a charge that requires proof in court because she is abroad.
Ukraine's Security Service and Prosecutor General's Office charged Iuliia Mendel, press secretary to Volodymyr Zelensky from 2019 to 2021, with treason in absentia on November 3, the Kyiv Independent reported. The agencies accused her of "information and subversive activities against Ukraine" and of "justifying the Kremlin regime and the full-scale war" against the country.
The report said Mendel, who was press secretary from 2019 to 2021, has since become a critic of the Ukrainian president and has called him a "dictator." It said she has also made claims it described as unconfirmed and, in some cases, misleading, and which it said echo Russian narratives.
According to the report, Mendel appeared on U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson's podcast in May and called Zelensky "the main obstacle to peace." The report said the appearance came four years after she published a book praising Zelensky, and that in September she spoke at a side event at the invitation of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party.
The agencies accused Mendel of treason committed under martial law and of justifying, legitimizing or denying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, the report said. Because she is abroad, the charges were filed in absentia, and her guilt must be proven in court.
Mendel said the case rested on her public remarks in Western media and on social media. "The materials on which this suspicion is based are my public statements in Western media and on social media, specifically those concerning revelations of corruption of Zelensky's inner circle, the absence of freedom of speech, and political persecution," she said, according to the report. She added: "If there had been any collaboration with the Russians, that is exactly what they would have written... There is none.... This is a matter of freedom of speech."
The report said Zelensky imposed sanctions on Mendel on September 13.
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