A few days before her visit, sanctions were imposed on her by V. Zelensky himself.
Yulia Mendel worked as V. Zelensky’s press secretary from his election in 2019 until 2021, a few months before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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At 40 years old, Y. Mendel became a fierce critic of her former boss. In an interview earlier this year with right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson, she called the president “one of the biggest obstacles to peace.”
The Ukrainian presidency announced sanctions against her and others on Sunday, accusing them of spreading “disinformation and Russian propaganda.”
Y. Mendel rejected these accusations.
“On the day of my speech, I was banned from entering the European Parliament,” Y. Mendel wrote on the social network X, linking the ban to the sanctions imposed on her a few days earlier.
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“But the speech will still take place because I know I represent a large part of society that longs for peace and wants to be heard,” she said.
According to Ukrainian media, Y. Mendel was supposed to speak at an event organized by Germany’s far-right party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD).
Neither the Ukrainian presidency nor the EP has commented on Y. Mendel’s accusations so far, and it is also unclear whether this decision was directly related to the sanctions imposed by Ukraine.
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