Ex-official blames Zelenskyy sanctions for exclusion from EU event

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former press secretary was denied entry to the European Parliament building, where she had been scheduled to speak at an event organised by Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Iuliia Mendel announced the development herself on X, as Caliber.Az reports, blaming the Ukrainian leader’s actions for the ban.

“On the day of my speech, I was barred from entering the European Parliament. I directly attribute this to Zelenskyy’s sanctions. But the speech will go ahead anyway, because I know that I represent a huge segment of society that longs for peace and wants to be heard,” she wrote on X.

Mendel expressed regret that “European parliamentarians do not want to hear the voices of Ukrainians who want peace.” She was poised to participate in a discussion organized by the German far-right party "Alternative für Deutschland" (AfD) titled "Ukraine: Dare to Choose Peace—Diplomacy, Not Escalation."

She also posted a video showing staff at the entrance telling her that her pass had been blocked for an unknown reason.

The former official, who served as the president’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, was referring to personal economic sanctions signed by Zelenskyy on September 13, enacting a decision by Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council (NSDC).

According to the president’s website, Zelenskyy signed three decrees enacting NSDC decisions to impose sanctions on vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet, companies and individuals linked to the Russian state corporation Rostec, and propagandists who justify Russian aggression.

“Another decision imposes restrictions on 10 Russian and Ukrainian individuals who spread disinformation and Russian propaganda and support Russia’s aggressive policy towards Ukraine. Iuliia Mendel is among those sanctioned,” a statement on the president’s website said.

Mendel responded to the sanctions on social media at the time, stating that “this does not change my position, nor the position of millions of Ukrainians. To survive, Ukraine needs peace, not yet another dictatorship — even if it is Zelenskyy’s dictatorship.”

According to Mendel, she “had a hunch” that sanctions might be imposed against her, and she also knows that charges of treason are being prepared against her over an interview with American conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, who was the first Western journalist to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022.

By Nazrin Sadigova