Mendel says in interview with Carlson about Zelenskyy's alleged agreement to give up Donbas in 2022: President's Office responds that she is "out of her mind"

Former presidential press secretary Yuliia Mendel claimed that during the negotiations in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, the Ukrainian delegation was allegedly ready to accept all of the russian side’s demands. In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, she claimed that Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally agreed to territorial concessions regarding the Donbas in order to end the war.

Mendel based her claims on conversations with anonymous individuals who, according to her, directly represented Ukraine at the meetings in Turkey. No factual evidence or documents were provided to support these claims.

"I spoke with people who represented Ukraine at the negotiations in Istanbul in 2022. And they explained to me in detail that they had agreed to everything. Moreover, and this is very important, they said that Zelenskyy personally agreed to cede Donbas," Yuliia Mendel stated.

The Office of the President categorically denied this information, emphasizing the former spokesperson’s complete lack of involvement in the negotiation process and the adoption of state decisions, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Officials at the President's Office also directly questioned the credibility of the former employee’s statements.

"This woman did not participate in the negotiations, did not participate in decision-making, has long been out of her mind, and as for who is telling her things there and whether it was actually true—it is not worth commenting on," the Office of the President stated.

Currently, official government representatives note that Mendel did not have access to state secrets or the content of the negotiations, and her statements on platforms known for their ambiguous attitude toward Ukraine are manipulative.

As a reminder, Yuliia Mendel, former press secretary to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claimed that Andrii Yermak, the former head of the Office of the President, practices magic. According to her, Yermak’s magicians collect water from corpses and burn herbs.