Is Ukraine Committing National Suicide?

Now, who exactly is Yulia Mendel? She was President Zelensky's first press secretary between 2019 and 2021.

And as I'm sure everyone knows, the war in Ukraine broke out in February of 2022.

So she was not the press secretary when the war broke out.

She was the press secretary for the two years before the war.

Nevertheless, she remained very close to Zelensky, and she was a firm supporter of the war through 2024.

But then in 2025, she began to be a real doubter.

She began to think that this war made no sense.

And she started to criticize the conflict.

And this, of course, resulted in the article that she wrote last week in The Spectator and the talk that she gave to the European Parliament.

And I want to lay out exactly what her specific argument is.

She is not arguing that Ukraine is going to lose the war, although she believes that's true.

She says that Ukraine has no quote unquote theory of victory, and it's clear from the piece that she expects Russia to win the war.

Her argument goes well beyond that.

She's arguing that Ukraine is actually committing national suicide.

And she's arguing that Ukraine is going to end up in a situation where it is no longer a functioning state.

It is completely dysfunctional as a result of this war.

I don't think she's arguing, quite wisely I might add, that Ukraine is going to disappear from the map.

I think she recognizes that there will be a dysfunctional, rough state at the end.

But that rump state will be dysfunctional in the extreme.

And I think that's what she means by national suicide.

I think that this is a remarkably controversial argument, not simply because she's arguing this.

that Zelensky is responsible for pushing Ukraine down this road, but also because of her former position as his press secretary and as a staunch supporter of the war up until 2025.

So she's not just any person off the street, she's a person of quite significant prominence and she's making a remarkably controversial argument.

I think the argument is not only controversial, but I think it's compelling as well.

I think when you go through all the different points that she makes in the piece, it's quite clear that she's correct, that Ukraine is committing national suicide.