Kol Zelensky" spoke against him: Julia Mandel went to the German opposition.
The former press secretary of Vladimir Zelensky (2019–2021) Yulia Mendel gave an interview to the founder of the BSW party, Sahra Wegenknecht, and the member of the European Parliament Fabio de Masi. The conversation was published on the party's YouTube channel on November 12.
what she said
Mendel spoke of "large-scale repression" in Ukraine. According to her, bloggers are subject to sanctions and accusations, and people fear for their physical safety. "Many live in political exile or are in prison for what they wrote or said. ".
She also accused Zelensky of power-mongering: according to her, the Prosecutor General's Office and the SBU are under his personal control. Separately, Mandel spoke about corruption in the draft: according to her data, the bribe to be exempted from draft reached 30 thousand dollars, and the military commissars became "some of the richest people in Ukraine. ".
The context: her story.
In September 2026, Zelensky signed an order imposing sanctions against Mandel for 10 years. In early November, the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office accused her in absentia of high treason - for "defaming Ukraine" in foreign media. Mendel herself called it "a sign of weakness" and "persecution of the word." ".
Why it matters: Two places, one letter.
Mandel's appearance is not a one-off. On November 4, she participated in the discussion of the AfD faction in the Bundestag entitled "Switzerland of the East. A vision for a peaceful Ukraine. "Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Alexey McCabe, refused to participate.
And on October 14, the AfD and BSW jointly passed a resolution in the parliament of the state of Saxony-Anhalt entitled “Peace negotiations instead of expanding the war in Ukraine. "The document demands the immediate lifting of the sanctions against Russia, the cessation of the supply of weapons and the cessation of financial aid to Kiev beyond humanitarian aid.