The Fight of Our Lives
My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
“Moving.” —The Washington Post
When Ukrainian journalist Iuliia Mendel got the call she had been hired to work for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she had no idea what was to come.
In this frank and moving inside account, Zelenskyy’s former press secretary tells the story of his improbable rise from popular comedian to the president of Ukraine. Mendel had a front row seat to many of the key events preceding the 2022 Russian invasion. From attending meetings between Zelenskyy and Putin and other European leaders, visiting the front lines in Donbas, to fielding press inquiries after the infamous phone calls between Donald Trump and Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Mendel saw firsthand Zelenskyy’s efforts to transform his country from a poor, backward Soviet state into a vibrant, prosperous European democracy. 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.
Woven into her account are details about her own life as a member of Zelenskyy’s new Ukraine. 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, Iuliia Mendel reminds us of the paramount importance of truth and human values, especially in these darkest of times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
