Former press secretary to the President of Ukraine Yulia Mendel said she was denied entry to the European Parliament building and attributed this to sanctions imposed on her by Ukraine.
"On the day of my speech, I was barred from entering the European Parliament. I directly attribute this to Zelenskyy's sanctions [imposed on September 13]. But the speech will take place anyway, because I know that I represent a huge segment of society that longs for peace and to be heard," she said in a video she posted on her Facebook page on Wednesday.
After the sanctions were imposed, Mendel said they had been imposed just a few days before her speech at the European Parliament. "A few days before my speech at the European Parliament, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, my former boss, imposed sanctions against me… I knew that "treason" was being orchestrated because of my interview with Tucker Carlson, and I suspected sanctions might be coming," Mendel said on Facebook on Sunday evening.
Zelenskyy's former press secretary was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the event "Ukraine: Dare to Choose Peace – Diplomacy, Not Escalation" in Strasbourg. The event was organized and moderated by AfD MEP Hans Neuhoff.
However, Mendel's planned speech was not an official event of the European Parliament. Members of the European Parliament and political groups may organize their own events on the premises of the European Parliament. The European Parliament itself does not approve the content of such events but handles organizational matters, including security, venue, translation, and technical support.
Mendel served as Zelenskyy's press secretary from 2019 to 2021. In May 2026, she gave an interview to American journalist Tucker Carlson, during which she made a series of accusations against Zelenskyy and his inner circle.
