Was Ukraine really ready to surrender Donbas? Presidential Office fires back at Mendel
The Office of the President has denied claims made by Yuliia Mendel suggesting that Ukraine was allegedly ready to hand Donbas over to Russia during the 2022 Istanbul talks.
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Yuliia Mende
The Presidential Office firmly rejected statements by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's former press secretary, Yuliia Mendel, who claimed Ukraine was on the verge of handing over Donbas during the 2022 Istanbul talks.
Mendel made this claim in an interview with American host Tucker Carlson.
According to her, she had supposedly spoken with individuals representing Ukraine at the negotiations, claiming they had "almost reached a deal." Mendel further alleged that Zelenskyy himself was purportedly ready to accept the loss of Donbas to stop the war.
"Zelenskyy personally agreed to give away [Donbas], and I was shocked at that moment," Mendel stated.
However, the Presidential Office dismissed these claims outright. Dmytro Lytvyn, Communications Advisor to the President, told journalists that Mendel was involved in neither the negotiations nor the state decision-making process.
"This lady did not participate in the negotiations, did not participate in decision-making. She has long lost touch with reality, and commenting on who tells her what—or if it even happened—is simply not serious," Lytvyn stated.
Andriy Kovalenko, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the NSDC, also debunked Mendel’s claims.
"The issue of surrendering territories has never been on the table and never will be. In 2022, the Ukrainian Defense Forces were actively fighting the enemy in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during the battles for Kyiv and following the rout of Russian troops in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions. And they continue to fight now," Kovalenko wrote.
The platform chosen for these remarks has drawn particular scrutiny. Mendel gave the interview to Tucker Carlson, a figure notorious for his harsh criticism of military aid to Ukraine and for frequently amplifying narratives aligned with Russian propaganda. Carlson previously traveled to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin and has also spoke with "Russian World" ideologue Alexander Dugin.
Yuliia Mendel served as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's press secretary from 2019 to 2021. The Istanbul negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place in 2022, following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.