KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has imposed sanctions on 10 Ukrainian and Russian nationals accused of spreading disinformation and Russian propaganda, including his former press secretary, Yuliia Mendel, according to a statement reported by hromadske.ua. The restrictions target individuals and organizations that, in the view of Ukraine’s leadership, support Russia’s aggressive policy against Ukraine and undermine the country’s wartime position. Mendel, who served as Zelenskyy’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, is the most prominent name on the list and the only individual explicitly identified in the announcement. The sanctions follow a deeply controversial interview Mendel gave to American blogger Tucker Carlson, during which she made allegations that closely resembled Kremlin narratives about the war. She claimed that Ukrainian negotiators at the 2022 Istanbul talks would have agreed to anything, that Zelenskyy had personally agreed to surrender the Donbas, and that the president was involved in money laundering and drug use. The decision also raises larger questions about how Ukraine is using sanctions as a wartime weapon, not only against Russian economic and military infrastructure but also against what officials see as dangerous information operations. By targeting a former insider, Kyiv is signaling that the limits of acceptable public speech have narrowed in wartime, while simultaneously trying to disrupt Russia’s shadow fleet and military-industrial supply chain.
The sanctions package is not limited to Mendel and the nine other individuals on the disinformation list. Ukraine also imposed restrictions on 20 vessels that belong to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the network of aging or opaque tankers used to transport Russian oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas while evading international sanctions and maritime insurance restrictions. These ships are registered under flags of convenience from Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leone, Barbados, and Palau, and their listed destinations include India, Egypt, and Turkey. Those three countries have maintained significant economic relationships with Russia despite Western sanctions, which makes the movement of these vessels particularly important to the global effort to reduce Moscow’s energy revenues. In addition, Ukraine announced a separate sanctions package against 29 Russian nationals and 29 Russian companies. The targets include enterprises that supply components for the production of missiles and drones, manufacturers of dual-use goods, specialized IT companies, research institutes, and an educational institution that trains specialists for the Kalashnikov concern. The breadth of the list suggests that Kyiv is trying to hit both the current logistical needs of Russia’s defense industry and its longer-term ability to develop new technologies and train skilled personnel. Ukraine said it would share information about the new restrictions with international partners for further coordination, an indication that these measures are designed to be multiplied through the larger Western sanctions network.
The inclusion of Yuliia Mendel on the sanctions list did not come out of nowhere. In May, Mendel appeared on Tucker Carlson’s program, a platform known for reaching a large American conservative audience and for giving sympathetic treatment to Kremlin arguments, including through Carlson’s February 2024 interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mendel used the appearance to make extraordinary claims about her former employer. She said she had spoken with members of the Ukrainian delegation that took part in the 2022 negotiations in Istanbul. According to her account, those delegation members told her they would have agreed to anything, and she alleged that Zelenskyy personally agreed to surrender the Donbas. She also accused the president of involvement in money laundering and claimed that he had damaged Ukraine’s relationship with the United States. Perhaps most strikingly, she said that she had met people who told her they had seen Zelenskyy using drugs at various clubs. She summarized her outlook by saying: “We see Putin as evil, but Zelenskyy is evil too – just concealed. On camera, he plays a teddy bear, but when the lights go out, he turns into a grizzly that destroys people.” Because Mendel was a former press secretary for the president, her words carried a level of insider credibility that ordinary anti-Ukrainian propaganda lacks. The interview was quickly interpreted by Ukrainian officials as an attempt to provide a familiar Kremlin storyline with the cover of first-hand acquaintance.
The response from the Office of the President of Ukraine was swift and unusually harsh. Officials said Mendel had not participated in the negotiations and had not been part of any decision-making process, questioning both her credibility and her seriousness. In a statement, the office said: “This woman did not participate in the negotiations or in decision-making, has been out of her mind for a long time, and commenting on who may have told her something or whether it actually happened would be unserious.” That dismissal was itself remarkable for a state institution, since it focused not on refuting every allegation but on attacking Mendel’s mental state and lack of access. Mendel, however, struck back in an equally sharp tone, telling the Office of the President to raise its ethical standards of communication and accusing the presidential administration of losing touch with reality. “Their biggest problem is that all of Zelenskyy’s close associates whom he has protected for years are suspected of laundering hundreds of millions of hryvnias,” she said. “The Office of the President should pay attention to how many thieves are currently in power, as well as to how to stop corruption and the war. And insulting a former press secretary for criticizing them is not the level of communication expected from a country’s leader.” The war of words set the stage for the sanctions, transforming what might have been a purely political conflict into a legal action with potential financial and practical consequences for Mendel.
Sanctioning a former presidential press secretary is not the same as sanctioning a foreign propagandist, and the move is likely to generate serious debate. Ukraine has long used sanctions against pro-Russian politicians, media figures, and religious leaders, but adding a former senior aide from inside the presidential administration to the list marks a different threshold. From the government’s perspective, Mendel’s interview with Carlson was not merely a personal opinion. It repeated and legitimized narratives that Russia has deployed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion: that Ukraine was never genuinely interested in peace talks, that Zelenskyy is a corrupt and drug-addicted leader, that his government is ruining the country, and that the United States was deliberately undermined by Kyiv. In a war where Western military and financial support is essential, such narratives can be as damaging as a battlefield defeat. The sanctions send a clear message to current and former Ukrainian officials that cooperating with pro-Russian media outlets, even indirectly, will be treated as a national security threat. Yet the decision also raises uncomfortable questions about free speech and due process. Critics may argue that sanctions are an extraordinary tool designed for external enemies and organized sanctions-evasion networks, not for settling scores with former employees who choose to criticize the president. The official language describing Mendel as “out of her mind” may further undermine the government’s claim that the action was based on evidence rather than personal anger. If Ukraine’s Western allies perceive the move as politically motivated, it could weaken the moral authority of the larger sanctions campaign that Kyiv has spent years building.
The broader sanctions package, meanwhile, demonstrates that Ukraine is thinking carefully about how to squeeze Russia economically. The shadow fleet is one of the most important gaps in the international sanctions regime. Because Russia cannot use most Western insurance companies and financial services for its oil exports, it has assembled a fleet of older tankers with opaque ownership and frequently changing flags. Designating individual vessels is an important tool because it forces ports, insurers, and trading companies to check whether a ship has been sanctioned before doing business with it. The inclusion of destinations such as India, Egypt, and Turkey is especially significant because those countries have not joined the comprehensive sanctions coalitions, yet they continue to buy or transit Russian energy. By listing these vessels, Ukraine is signaling to those countries that cooperation with Moscow may carry secondary consequences. The sanctions against Russian defense-industrial entities are equally strategic. Targeting research institutes and educational institutions connected to the Kalashnikov concern suggests that Kyiv wants to disrupt the next generation of Russian weapons development, not just the immediate supply chains that keep Russia’s missile and drone production going. In the end, the sanctions serve multiple purposes: they impose real costs on Russia, they support Ukraine’s diplomatic effort to convince allies to do more, and they draw a line around what the Ukrainian government considers unacceptable information activity during wartime. The decision to include Yuliia Mendel will remain contested, but it is part of a much larger story about how a country under invasion uses law, sanctions, and information policy to defend itself. Whether that story strengthens Ukraine’s position or creates new vulnerabilities will depend on the transparency of the evidence, the coordination of international partners, and the ability of the Ukrainian state to balance security with democratic principles.
