Mendel Complains of Bullying and Harassment After Incident with Andrushko

According to her, the incident triggered a lot of manipulation.

Ukrainian presidential press secretary Yulia Mendel complained of a wave of harassment that hit her after an incident with Radio Liberty journalist Sergey Andrushko. This is reported by Unian.

The scandal erupted after Mendel pushed Andrushko away when he wanted to ask the president a question. According to her, he violated her personal boundaries. After this, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech contacted her. However, Mendel said she had already spoken with Andrushko in person, and the journalist holds no grudges over what happened.

Yulia Mendel
press secretary of the President of Ukraine

Some kind of manipulation has begun. Someone has already started making such absurd claims that I supposedly harassed someone. I apologize, but when we talk about freedom of speech, we must understand where discussion ends and where plain harassment begins.

After the incident, a collar and a muzzle were brought to her at the Office of the President. Moreover, the post about this was written by another Radio Liberty journalist, Mikhail Tkach. The incident left Mendel in shock.

Yulia Mendel
press secretary of the President of Ukraine

If I had any inappropriate behavior, it should not provoke such a level of harassment, bullying and abuse. In this case, we need to establish an adult dialogue between people and determine where these offended people even came from. Because there is so much lying, manipulation and everything else. We will sort it out at the committee on freedom of speech. I will come.

Pashinsky was served with a notice of suspicion of a crime 3 years later.