Iuliia Mendel Profile picture
Sep 13 10 tweets 5 min read
1/10 When I was a little girl in Kherson, now under Russian siege, a life like mine was unimaginable. In 2019, at 32 years old, I won a competition over 4K applicants to work as press-secretary to our new president @ZelenskyyUa. Never before had such a job been open to the public
2/10 I was 5 when my country became independent. Ukraine had never known freedom under the USSR, girls like me were told to keep quiet & expect little. Families without much, like mine, were unimportant. But Ukraine demanded freedom that is now under violent threat from autocracy
3/10That independence we now fight to retain brought opportunity. With @ZelenskyyUA’s support, I took my seat at the table with the most influential & powerful men in 🇺🇦, many of them confident that my voice was less important than theirs. But over time, their faces would change
4/10 Contrary to their assumptions about me, a millennial woman from a poor background, I became a trusted advisor to @ZelenskyyUa. I was by his side on all his official trips, for interviews & conferences, meetings with world leaders in advance of the war that was to come.
5/10 I fielded media requests after the infamous call with President Trump, I shook hands with 🇩🇪 Chancellor Merkel. I even met Putin, who invaded our homeland in 2022. I witnessed how he claimed to negotiate peace with @ZelenskyyUa before Putin’s words were proven to be a lie.
6/10I witnessed Zelenskyy grow into the leader the world sees today. Earlier,men at much senior positions advised him to ignore the media. In the first months of my work the press-service was banned from responding to requests, commenting, organizing interviews with the President
7/10 In the vacuum this silence created, Russia & its allies used social media, TV, radio to attack Zelenskyy, 🇺🇦’s institutions, &democracy itself. These were tactics Putin & Russia had practiced to influence their own people, & now employ in Europe, the US, & across the globe.
8/10 I fought against this approach & finally won. I organized dozens of media interviews that helped Zelenskyy explain his position & the situation in Ukraine. Now seeing him talk to the whole world about 🇷🇺’s terrible war I’m proud to know I was there to make his voice stronger
9/10 I titled my book The Fight of Our Lives for the lives of my homeland, Ukraine, yes. But I hope the book shows the world that Ukraine’s fight is OUR fight. It is a fight for freedom. For fairness. For equality. For opportunity. For democracy & a voice amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS…
10/10 And I want the world to know the Ukraine I grew up in. Not just host to a war, but a beautiful, resilient, vibrant young democracy that has overcome tremendous challenges for the freedom it now fights a war to defend #UkraineWillWin #Ukraine #Democracy #StandWithUkraine

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