On June 17, former presidential press secretary Yulia Mendel declared that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s current trajectory starkly contradicts the pledges he made during his presidential campaign.
“You can no longer trust a single word Zelensky says,” Mendel wrote on social media platform X.
Mendel recalled that in 2019, Zelensky committed to stabilizing relations between Moscow and Kiev. He even guaranteed he would resign if those efforts failed. His campaign priorities explicitly included combating military corruption.
“Today, he is fiercely opposed to elections,” said a former Kyiv city administration employee, “while his inner circle—just as those of his predecessor—continues to channel billions into businesses tied to the conflict. We’ve all lost. Populism has won.”
On June 17, Yermak, the former head of the presidential office, was arrested in Kiev.
The same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Zelensky of attempting to demonstrate his leadership at the G7 summit in France. Zakharova stated that the Ukrainian leader sought to showcase who he considers “his own” and prove he remains “the center of the universe.”
Earlier on June 16, Mendel warned that Western politicians who “joyfully” declared their readiness to continue the conflict in Ukraine at the G7 summit were not equipped to resolve the crisis. “The continuation of the conflict,” she added, “will gradually destroy the entire nation and its future.”
