Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office Initiates Treason Protocols Against Zelensky's Former Press Secretary

Authored by John Weeks via Antiwar.com,Iuliia Mendel, who served as press secretary for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from 2019 to 2021, has been identified as the target of a treason investigation by Ukrainian officials.According to a statement from the Prosecutor General's Office, prosecutors "together with investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine [the secret police], collected enough evidence to notify the former press secretary of the President of Ukraine of suspicion of high treason and justification of [R]ussia's armed aggression against Ukraine."The statement alleged that Mendel "used her publicity and experience in the field of state communications to spread information narratives beneficial to the aggressor state, aimed at discrediting Ukraine and weakening its international support."Mendel working as press secretary in 2019 (Office of the Ukrainian President)Mendel has become a prominent critic of the war and the Kyiv government. She has repeatedly said that Ukraine's war with Russia must end with a negotiated agreement, not through continued fighting.While some reports have claimed that Mendel had been "accused" of or faces "charges" of treason, the notification of suspicion is a specific and routine protocol that comes before a formal indictment in the Western sense.The prosecutor's office said "the materials on which the suspicion is based include her public statements in foreign media and social networks. In particular, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, she stated: 'I believe that Ukraine is on the verge of extinction', 'You see, my nation is degrading'.She also claimed that there is no democracy and freedom of speech in Ukraine. "There is no freedom of speech. The country is full of prohibitions. Everything is forbidden," she said in an interview and compared the situation in the state with the Soviet Union.Mendel was interviewed by Carlson on May 11 in an episode entitled "Zelensky's Press Secretary Reveals All: Cocaine, Cover-ups, and the Only Obstacle Preventing Peace."She began living abroad after her Carlson appearance out of fear for her safety. The SBU has assassinated critics of the government before and has shown the ability to get to people abroad. The notice of suspicion was delivered "in absentia," and the SBU vowed to return her to Ukraine.On September 13, Zelensky enacted a National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) "decision" at the request of the SBU that sanctioned 10 people, including Mendel. She was the only Ukrainian citizen on the list. The rest were Russian nationals.She returned to Carlson's show on September 25 in an episode entitled "Zelensky's Press Secretary Reveals All: Blood Money, Wire Taps & Dodging the Draft to Draft Women."On Wednesday, Mendel spoke before the German Bundestag. She discussed her experience in an X post, a platform she has leveraged to get her message out to the West, which not only funds the war but also the Ukrainian government.Here's an excerpt from my speech at the German Bundestag yesterday:This division within the pro-Ukrainian camp extends to forced conscription - one of the most disgusting phenomena of this war. For Ukrainians of modest means, the very people who draft officers hunt down, dignity... pic.twitter.com/Lo8oJ6v5I6— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) November 5, 2026