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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former spokesman urged him on Sunday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in person in Moscow, arguing that his past business and political connections in the Russian capital could help him broker a peace deal there.
Iuliia Mendel, who served as Zelensky’s spokesperson from 2019 to 2021, told Fox News Digital that the former comedian also made his first millions in Russia and should perhaps leverage those connections to seek lasting peace.
“When Zelensky was an artist, he often performed in Moscow,” Mendel said, adding that the Ukrainian president “knows many people among Putin’s elite.”
“In fact, he grew up professionally in Moscow and earned his first millions in Moscow, and today he claims he has nothing in common with them,” Mendel said.
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Iuliia Mendel claimed that when Zelensky was an artist, he often performed in Moscow,” Mendel said the Ukrainian president “knows many people from Putin’s elite.” (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)
“He must go to Moscow and must agree on acceptable compromises,” she said, before adding that Zelenskyy “does not need to play his maximalist games and play this noble actor.”
Mendel’s criticism comes as Ukraine, Russia and the United States prepare for a new round of technical-level peace talks, potentially in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland, in November.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner helped lay the groundwork for new negotiations that officials hope could ultimately lead to direct talks between the two leaders.
Before entering politics, Zelenskyy had built a successful career in entertainment. Starting in the late 1990s, he performed with the Kvartal 95 comedy troupe, participated in the Russian-language comedy program KVN and later worked as an actor, writer and producer in television and cinema.
Starting in the late 1990s, he performed on Russian stages and at private parties and appeared in films shown in the former Soviet republics, Mendel said.
She explained that after Russia annexed Crimea and launched its war in Donbass in early 2014, Zelensky visited Russia to work on the comedy film “Eight New Dates,” released in Russian theaters in 2015.
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Before entering politics, Zelenskyy had a successful career in Ukraine’s entertainment industry. (Shutterstock)
According to a Business Insider report, many of Zelensky’s films were also in Russian and were marketed to Russian audiences, said David Dodson, an American editor who worked with Zelensky.
“He was a very popular comedian, actor and performer in Russia, but after the Maidan (2013-2014) everything changed,” Dodson said.
“People need to understand that Volodya’s films were very popular in Russia. Most of his market was in Russia. He was always a popular comedy star in Russia,” Dobson also told GQ when asked if he had directed the former actor in Russia’s “Eight First Dates,” released in 2012.
In 2013, the film received the Russian National Movie Awards as the best Russian comedy of the year.
In 2019, Zelensky also promised to give up ownership of a company registered in Cyprus and operating a film studio in Russia after investigative journalists revealed that he and his business partners still owned three Russian companies, according to the Kyiv Post.
Zelensky’s career in entertainment made him a household name in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics before he entered politics and won Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election with about 73% of the vote in a runoff on promises to fight corruption and seek peace in eastern Ukraine.
Mendel argued that Zelensky’s promise to bring peace at the time stood in stark contrast to the devastating war that crippled the country and defined much of his presidency.
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Emergency workers work at the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in kyiv region, Ukraine, July 24, 2026. (Press service of the National Emergency Service of Ukraine/handout via Reuters)
“Zelensky became president with record 73 percent support,” Mendel said. “Because he promised to bring peace to Ukraine.”
“And now he has been presiding for almost five years over the biggest war in Europe since World War II. That shows a lot.”
“When his country is bleeding, he must conclude a peace agreement for his people,” she said before adding that the leader “must put the interests of his people first, just for Ukraine to exist as an independent state.”
The question of whether Zelensky should go to Moscow has actually become a flashpoint in efforts to hold direct peace talks.
In 2025, Putin offered to host Zelensky for talks in Moscow, but the Ukrainian president rejected the invitation as Russian forces continued to attack Ukraine.
“He can come to kyiv,” Zelenskyy told ABC News at the time, saying he could not visit Moscow while Ukraine remained under Russian missile attacks.
In September, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Russian journalists asked Zelensky the date of his visit to Moscow. He replied, “On a missile.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin was seen Monday at a ceremony presenting state awards to mentors and teachers of participants in Russia’s war in Ukraine, at the Moscow Kremlin. Putin has strictly suppressed the flow of information to the outside world, observers said. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Mendel, however, argued that personal animosity between the two leaders became the main obstacle to diplomacy.
“Today, diplomatic efforts are being made to try to put an end to this brutal and bloody war started by Russia,” she said.
“But what we see now is a personal opposition between Zelensky and Putin that continues to spiral into a steady escalation in which people are suffering enormously, Ukraine’s infrastructure, energy network and businesses are in ruins and refugees are fleeing.”
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. More than four years later, peace negotiations are deadlocked over territory, security guarantees and conditions for a lasting ceasefire.
Moscow has demanded territorial concessions from Ukraine, particularly in areas that Russian forces do not fully control.
kyiv has refused to cede sovereign territory and insists that any deal include enforceable security guarantees against another Russian attack.
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President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on December 28, 2025, that a Ukraine peace deal was close to being reached after talks in Florida, although disputes over territory remain. (Volodymyr Zelensky X)
Mendel then praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to break the diplomatic impasse, calling him the first Western leader to “challenge the status quo” and consistently push for an end to the war.
“It is for this reason that many Ukrainians have high hopes for his ability to bring peace,” she said.
“A lasting peace agreement cannot be reached between Zelensky and Putin alone; it requires the involvement and initiative of a strong third party to end the ongoing devastation.”
On Friday, the White House announced that first lady Melania Trump helped negotiate a temporary ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, mine clearance operations and civilian evacuations.
There are an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 people left in the devastated frontline town, many of whom face severe shortages of food, medicine and other essentials.
The White House said the ceasefire would begin on October 29, although Ukrainian and Russian officials have indicated that operations could begin on October 27.
Pope Leo also reportedly spoke with Zelensky and Putin about the humanitarian crisis, according to Vatican News.
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First lady Melania Trump visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art September 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. The visit took place during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States. (Finn Gomez/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Melania Trump has become synonymous with the words savior and hero since she brokered the deal for Oleshky,” Mendel said. “This is something that is going to save about 2,000 people and that neither Ukraine nor Russia could have solved for months and months.”
“That’s why, you know, what Melania Trump did is actually an example to show that where two men fight, a woman can actually save lives,” she added.
“And this is the new approach that would show that peace should really focus on human lives, not maps and territories.”
Mendel also criticized the influence of Zelensky’s longtime ally Andriy Yermak on his diplomatic approach, arguing that the Ukrainian president favored confrontation over compromise.
“Mr. Yermak was teaching Zelenskiy to become a strong man in diplomacy. And what we see today is actually a diplomacy that does not exist,” she said.
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“It is a diplomacy of humiliation, a diplomacy of constant threats, a diplomacy of demands,” Mendel added.
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