My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World
July 15, 2022
The former press secretary to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy lays out the stakes of the current war. "Perhaps he had not always been a perfect leader," writes Mendel. "There had been difficulty in mustering the necessary support around his initiatives, managing his staff, and navigating the shoals of partisan politics. But in the chaos of war he knew exactly what to do. He became our national protector." Indeed, Zelenskyy came into his own as a wartime leader of unflinching courage and a deeply wrought conviction that Ukraine is a bulwark of Western democracy and a nation that belongs in the 21st century. By contrast, Mendel writes in a closely observed portrait, "there is only one way to describe Putin: 'old age.' No matter how much I looked at him and his delegation, no matter how much I listened, everything about them conveyed old age: old ideology, old principles, old behavior, old thoughts." Readers will find a generally admiring but not entirely uncritical depiction of Zelenskyy as well. He is a masterful negotiator who understands that peace is preferable to war, for "only with peace can he focus on rebuilding his nation." That rebuilding involves guiding Ukraine to forward-looking economic, social, and cultural standards and shaking off the power of oligarchs, but it also acknowledges that Ukraine is a multicultural society that includes ethnic Russians--who, in the course of the current war, have discovered that their language is now associated with "inhumanity and cruel aggression," so much so that they're switching to speaking Ukrainian as an expression of solidarity. Readers will also find a cleareyed look at both the reasons for Russia's intransigence and the countervailing force of Ukrainian resistance in a war that "has burned away all that was artificial and superficial in our lives." A nuanced portrait of a leader in a time of crisis who has definitely risen to the occasion.
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August 8, 2022
Journalist Mendel debuts with a brisk and flattering account of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s fight against Russian interference. Mendel, who served as Zelenskyy’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, traces her former boss’s swift rise from sitcom star to president and contends that Zelenskyy “realized early on that his primary job was to become the embodiment of Ukraine as a fully independent, sovereign state.” She details his efforts to stamp out corruption and limit Russian meddling in the news media and Ukrainian politics, and describes the steep learning curve his government faced in trying to right the country’s struggling economy while dealing with Covid-19 and large “rent-a-crowd” protests organized by oligarchs who opposed his reformist agenda. Mendel also offers a stout defense of Zelenskyy’s 2019 decision to open peace talks with the Kremlin to end the war in the Donbas, and shares tragic details of the current conflict. Though the portrait that emerges of Zelenskyy feels more adulatory than authentic, this is a spirited account of history in the making.
September 1, 2022
Ukrainian journalist Mendel, former press secretary for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, illuminates the complexity of Ukraine and its long struggle for independence by telling the story of her village childhood, during which she spoke Ukrainian; her studious youth in Kherson, where she learned Russian and English; her earning of academic awards and a PhD, and varied international professional experiences. Her invaluable perspective enables her to deftly analyze the lies Russia deployed about Ukrainian "Nazis" as it launched its atrocious 2022 invasion. She also recounts Zelenskyy's remarkable life, from the murder of his great-grandparents by the actual Nazis to his police-chief grandfather to Zelenskyy's rise from a "rough working-class town" to earn a law degree, daringly perform political comedy, and build an influential entertainment empire, illuminating precisely how this revolutionary perfectionist and passionate workaholic has "changed Ukrainian politics forever." Mendel then offers arresting cautionary tales about "information weapons" and how the relentless propagation of lies is imperiling freedom and democracy everywhere. Vivid and clarifying, Mendel's chronicle profoundly deepens our understanding of Ukraine and the current crisis and why it matters worldwide.
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