WCEE Distinguished Lecture. The Fight of Our Lives

Iuliia Mendel is a Ukrainian journalist, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico Europe, and many other prominent media outlets. In 2019, she was selected from a pool of around 4,000 applicants for the position of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Press-Secretary, a post she held for over two years until spring 2021.

Mendel had a front row seat to many of the key events preceding the 2022 Russian invasion. She attended meetings between Zelenskyy and Putin and other European leaders, visited the front lines in Donbas, as well as fielded press inquiries after the infamous phone calls between Donald Trump and Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Mendel saw firsthand efforts to transform her country from a poor, backward Soviet state into a vibrant, prosperous European democracy. In her work, Mendel sheds light on the massive economic problems facing Ukraine and the entrenched corrupt oligarchs in league with Russia. She witnessed the Kremlin’s repeated attacks to discredit Zelenskyy through disinformation and an army of bots and trolls.

In 2022, Mendel released a book titled The Fight of Our Lives. Written with the sound of Russian bombs and exploding shells in the background, Mendel details life lived under Russian siege in 2022. She says goodbye to her fiancé who joins the front lines, like so many other Ukrainian men. Throughout this story of Zelenskyy, Ukraine, and its extraordinary people, Mendel reminds us of the paramount importance of truth and human values, especially in these darkest of times.

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