Iuliia Mendel

Iuliia Mendel
Юлія Мендель
Press secretary of the President of Ukraine
In office
3 June 2019 – 9 July 2021
PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky
Preceded bySviatoslav Tseholko
Succeeded bySerhii Nykyforov
Personal details
Born (1986-09-03) 3 September 1986 (age 38)
Henichesk, Kherson Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
NationalityUkrainian
SpousePavlo Kukhta
Alma materTaras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • press secretary

Iuliia Volodymyrivna Mendel[a] (Ukrainian: Юлія Володимирівна Мендель; born 3 September 1986) is a Ukrainian journalist and political advisor. She was the press secretary in the administration of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy[1][2][3] from June 3, 2019, until July 9, 2021.[4]

Biography

She graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and is a candidate of philological sciences. In June 2008, she graduated from the Institute of Philology of KNU, where she studied English and Polish, Ukrainian language and literature. In 2012, she defended her PhD thesis on The natural philosophical metalogy of Volodymyr Zatulyviter's lyrics in the context of poetry of 1970-90.[5]

She worked as a journalist for ICTV, Espreso TV, 112 Ukraine and Inter TV channels. Iuliia Mendel became the first Ukrainian journalist to win the World Press Institute program.[6]

She had previously worked as a Communications Consultant at the World Bank, and had contributed journalistic reporting for The New York Times.[7][8][9] Mendel had worked as a journalist for several other media outlets that includes work for Politico Europe,[10] the Atlantic Council,[11] Vice,[12] Spiegel Online,[13] and Forbes.[3]

In April 2016, she was the producer of the first documentary about post-traumatic stress disorder, Shell-Shocked: Ukraine's Trauma.[14][15]

She trained abroad as part of the Lech Wałęsa Solidarity program, the THREAD program at Yale University, and took a course at the Warsaw Euro-Atlantic Summer Academy (WEASA).

Mendel won a competition for press secretary that was announced by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 30 April 2019. Winning from 4,000 other contestants, Mendel was appointed on 3 June 2019.[1]

In October 2019, she was included in the rating of the 100 most influential women in Ukraine by Focus magazine.[16]

In March 2021, Iuliia Mendel entered the top 100 most successful women in Ukraine by Novoe Vremya magazine,[17] in the category “State officials”.[18]

Spokesperson for the President of Ukraine

As the spokesperson of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she was given the task to lead the international direction. In particular, Zelenskyy gave interviews to leading European media, such as Le Monde,[19] Der Spiegel,[20][21] Gazeta Wyborcza,[22] and he also appears on the covers of Time,[23][24] p and The Guardian.[25][26][27] In August 2020, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's interview with Euronews was published in 13 languages:[28] English,[29] Russian,[30] German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Greek, Albanian, Turkish, Arabic and Persian.

Iuliia Mendel also dealt with official statements that had a public response. In particular, statements were made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy about PrivatBank and Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, where the Ukrainian President said that in the history of the bank "he will protect the interests of the state of Ukraine, the interests of every Ukrainian only",[31][32] and that "Kolomoyskyi doesn’t have the authority to act on behalf of Ukraine or the Office of the President of Ukraine".[33]

Mendel accompanied the President of Ukraine in all regional and international visits. She oversaw the information content of the official website of the President of Ukraine president.gov.ua, social networks, and work with the media.[34]

In December 2019, she participated in the Normandy Format talks in Paris.[35]

In July 2020, The National Interest published the article by Iuliia Mendel entitled "Why Ukraine Really Is On the Road to Reform", where she talks about new government initiatives, presidency of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, land reform in Ukraine, and IMF tranches.[36]

On March 15, 2021, she made her debut as the host of the View from the Bankova program on the Dom TV channel, the launch of which became known only on the day of the first broadcast. Later it turned out that Mendel was not the host of the program, but one of the speakers from the Office of the President of Ukraine and other colleagues in power would also appear on the air of the program.[37][38]

Article with allegations about Biden

Mendel had worked as a journalist, and was a coauthor with Kenneth P. Vogel of an article published in The New York Times on 1 May 2019.[39][2] The article detailed how in 2016, then-Vice President Biden successfully pushed Ukraine to oust Viktor Shokin, the country's top prosecutor who'd been criticized by the U.S. as an impediment to corruption reform. The story suggested the possibility that Biden was motivated to push for Shokin's removal because the prosecutor investigated the head of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company where Biden's son Hunter was a board member.[2]


In June 2019, CNN released a story about the conflict of interest of Mendel, who wrote a story for The New York Times in May while she was a candidate for the government position and kept it secret from the newspaper that she applied for the position. According to Ari Isaacman Bevacqua, a spokesperson for The Times, "had Mendel informed editors of her job application, they would not have given her that assignment, and we would have stopped working with her immediately given this serious conflict of interest".[40]

After the article was published, Iuliia Mendel stated that there was no conflict of interest, in her statement for CNN:

First, I work for the new administration that changed two weeks ago. The inauguration of a new President took place on May, 20. This new administration never had any connection to what was revealed in the story. I could not benefit from the story about Mr. Biden, in fact, vice vers[a], I was asked some sharp questions about it to make it clear that I was not connected to some of those cited in the story. So, as you see, the story was more an obstacle for getting this job as raised concerns from my possible future employers. Second, my former colleague from The Times started the investigation last fall when the current President had not even announced about running for Presidency. This year, we have worked on it closely for around 2 months when no one knew in Ukraine that the new President could announce any transparent competition for the vacancies. The vacancy was announced on April 30 when the story was ready. I applied for it on May, 3 having confidence I would not even be considered.[40]

— Iuliia Mendel

Notes

  1. ^ Transliterated as Yuliia or Yulia according to standard romanization

References

  1. ^ a b "Zelensky appoints journalist Iuliia Mendel his press secretary". Ukrainian Independent Information Agency. No. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Tani, Maxwell (3 June 2019). "Author of New York Times' Controversial Biden-Ukraine Story Becomes New Ukrainian President's Spokeswoman". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b Hashmi, Faizan (3 June 2019). "Zelenskyy Appoints 32-Year-Old Journalist Head Of Presidential Press Service - Statement". UrduPoint. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  4. ^ "Про призначення С.Никифорова Прес-секретарем Президента України". Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  5. ^ Натурфілософська металогія лірики Володимира Затуливітра у контексті поезії 1970-90-х рр (in Ukrainian). Maksymovych Scientific Library. 2012.
  6. ^ Mendel, Iuliia (2018-05-08). "Iuliia Mendel: Here's how Ukraine should remember Victory Day". Kyiv Post.
  7. ^ Mendel, Iuliia (21 July 2018). "Attacks on Roma Force Ukraine to Confront an Old Ethnic Enmity". The New York Times. No. 21 July 2018. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  8. ^ Mendel, Iuliia (14 September 2018). "4,000 Children Flee Pollution Disaster on Ukraine-Crimea Border". The New York Times. No. 14 September 2018. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  9. ^ Mendel, Iuliia (19 May 2019). "'A Good Career, if I Satisfied Him.' Ukraine Fights Sexual Abuse, and a War". The New York Times. No. 19 May 2019. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Iuliia Mendel - POLITICO". Politico. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Search Results - IULIIA MENDEL". Atlantic Council. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  12. ^ Shell-Shocked: Ukraine's Trauma on YouTube
  13. ^ Mendel, Iuliia; Vollmer, Jan. "Er ist unsere Luft. Uns fehlt die Luft zum Atmen". Der Spiegel. No. 19 February 2018. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  14. ^ "Iuliia Mendel". IMDb.
  15. ^ "Shell-Shocked: Ukraine's Trauma". VICE News. 2016-04-28.
  16. ^ "Лидеры и рулевые. 100 самых влиятельных женщин". Focus magazine. 2019-10-21.
  17. ^ "Журнал НВ называет 100 самых успешных женщин Украины". Novoe Vremya (in Russian). 2021-03-06.
  18. ^ "Мендель, Рожкова, Маркарова. Кто вошел в рейтинг самых влиятельных госчиновниц Украины". Novoe Vremya (in Russian). 2021-03-08.
  19. ^ Gatinois, Claire (2019-12-02). "Volodymyr Zelensky : " Nous voulons un véritable cessez-le-feu "". Le Monde (in French).
  20. ^ Esch, Christian (2019-12-02). ""Ich will nicht, dass wir wie Bettler wirken"". Der Spiegel (in German).
  21. ^ "Wie Wolodymyr Selenskyj die Ukraine und sich selbst verändert". Der Spiegel (in German). 2020-05-19.
  22. ^ Andrusieczko, Piotr (2019-12-02). "Wołodymyr Zełenski: Nie pójdę na Donbas, zginęłyby setki tysięcy ludzi". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish).
  23. ^ Shuster, Simon (2019-12-05). ""I'm Not Afraid of the Impeachment Questions": How Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Is Navigating His Role in the World's Biggest Political Drama". Time.
  24. ^ "Президент Украины впервые попал на обложку Time". Ukrayinska Pravda. 2019-12-05.
  25. ^ Shaun Walker, Andrew Roth (2020-03-07). "Volodymyr Zelenskiy: 'My White House invitation? I was told it's being prepared'". The Guardian.
  26. ^ "Свежий номер The Guardian вышел с фотографией Зеленского на обложке". Ukrinform. 2020-03-07. Archived from the original on March 8, 2020.
  27. ^ "Интервью Президента Украины Владимира Зеленского The Guardian". president.gov.ua. 2020-03-08.
  28. ^ "Euronews будет показывать интервью Зеленского четыре дня — Мендель". Novoe Vremya. 2020-08-26.
  29. ^ Vakulina, Sasha (2020-08-25). "Volodymyr Zelenskyy: 'high chance' of ending war in Ukraine 'this year'". Euronews.
  30. ^ Vakulina, Sasha (2020-08-25). "Владимир Зеленский: "Донбасс и Крым должны вернуться"". Euronews.
  31. ^ Smirnov, Andrii (2019-10-29). "Зеленский не вернет Приватбанк Коломойскому". Novoe Vremya.
  32. ^ "UPDATED: What Ukraine's Zelenskyy Said During Record-Long Press Conference". hromadske.ua. 2019-10-10.
  33. ^ "Kolomoisky has no authority to speak on behalf of Ukraine or President's Office – Mendel". Ukrinform. 2019-11-15.
  34. ^ Kurylo, Anastasia (2020-05-20). ""Президента должно освещать рейтинговое издание": Мендель объяснила, как выбирали журналистов на пресс-конференцию Зеленского". Televiziyna Sluzhba Novyn.
  35. ^ "First Normandy Four summit in three years: what we know so far". Ukrainian Independent Information Agency. 2019-12-09.
  36. ^ Mendel, Iuliia (2020-07-30). "Why Ukraine Really Is On the Road to Reform". The National Interest.
  37. ^ "Мендель запускает собственное шоу на телевидении". Ukrayinska Pravda. 2021-03-15.
  38. ^ "Мендель не буде ведучою телешоу на каналі "Дом"". Detector media. 2021-03-18.
  39. ^ Vogel, Kenneth P.; Mendel, Iuliia (1 May 2019). "Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  40. ^ a b Oliver Darcy. "Co-author of controversial New York Times Biden-Ukraine story is hired as Ukraine president's spokesperson". CNN. Retrieved 2019-12-25.

Further reading

Iuliia Mendel: Кожен Іэ Нас Преэиденм tr. by I. Mendel as The Fight of Our Lives: My Time With Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What it Means for the World (OneSignal Publishers/Simon & Schuster New York 2022; a previous translation was made by Madeline Levine) ISBN 978-1-6680-1271-0

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