Zelensky’s Press Secretary Returns From Exile With a Message for the Tyrant

Tucker Carlson (0:04)

So thank you for coming back. And I just want to say, I'm sorry, I knew there would be repercussions for your first interview that you did earlier this year with us. And apparently, there were. Can you tell us what happened after that interview aired?

Yulia Navalnaya (0:19)

Well, yes. Actually, thank you for giving me the platform. First time and now because right now, Ukrainians are facing huge censorship everywhere. Thanks to Volodymyr Zelensky. And our interview for me was a trouble. I know that after our interview, Zelensky ordered to have some kind of so-called linguistic expertise.

And this is a corrupt practice that exists in the government of Ukraine that helps them prove something that they want to prove to execute their political persecution.

So, this linguistic expertise is still ongoing. However, I'm already under sanctions. If this linguistic expertise is finished, I'm going to face the prison charges that in Ukraine under martial law can be from 15 years of prison to life sentence. So, this is absolutely crazy. But let me explain why I am under sanctions.

I was invited to have a speech in the European Parliament by the Alternative for Germany, AfD, one of the most actually popular party in Germany. And this was supposed to be a speech about the necessity of peace for Ukraine.

We announced this speech, I think approximately September 10th.

And on September 15th, Zelensky introduced imposed sanctions on me.

So what happened next was that when I arrived to the European Parliament on September 16th, when my speech needed to take place, I was barred from entering the European Parliament. And we were told that they didn't know the reason. But that personally, Roberta Metzola, who is the head of the European Parliament, banned me from entering. They also tried to ban the video transmission. And they did not allow to translate my speech into German and French. Thanks to FD, we managed somehow technically to have video transmission. And I even answered the questions. However, this shows a very huge problem. Because I had a lot of questions from Western journalists. Why Ukrainians don't speak about the necessity of peace. One journalist even told me that he had a feeling that no one in Ukraine except of Yulia Mandel wanted peace. But I see this growing tendency, and I'm sitting here absolutely sure that the majority of Ukrainians want peace as soon as possible, because I get enormous support from everywhere. But nobody sees that. And I thought that it was the problem, Ukrainians didn't have enough people to talk, enough contacts, enough experience or skills to reach the bigger platforms. But it happened that there is just a censorship, a huge censorship. Nobody wants to listen to Ukrainians who call for peace. And this is, to be frank, this is so heartbreaking and so disappointing, because Ukraine today is looking at European Union and the place of democracy, of freedom of speech. But in fact, it is very far from the reality.

Yeah, so I'm under sanctions. What it means? It means that I cannot make any financial operations in Ukraine. No buying, selling properties, cars, nothing. My financial accounts are banned. My business accounts are canceled, banned. I cannot have any bank accounts today. But there is another thing that Zelensky introduced in the sanctions. My three accounts and social media, it is Facebook, Instagram and X. And he requested that these accounts are banned from Ukrainian audience, from the people who live in Ukraine. And if it's possible, I would really love to appeal, to address today, to the people who work in Matter Company and in X. Not asking only for myself, but asking for all Ukrainians who are on systematic basis, are banned from talking to the Ukrainians in Ukraine. This happens all the time. I know the bloggers who repeatedly restart their pages because they call for peace. And then the Minister of Culture of Ukraine requests to ban the accounts from Ukrainians. And if it's possible, I just would like to underline that for Ukrainians today, social media is the only way actually to talk about peace. And if these accounts are banned, my accounts and accounts of other Ukrainians, then it actually disrupts any kind of communication. Because Ukrainians today discuss, what are the possibilities of peace? How we see it? What are the issues for post-war Ukraine? What we can accept? This is the real matter. And I really would ask to be attentive to this. Because this is our way to show the world, to show journalists, to show politicians, that there is this necessity to have peace.

Tucker Carlson (5:38)

It's such a remarkable story.

I remember our interview very well. In it, you spoke as a Ukrainian, as a Ukrainian nationalist, as someone who loves Ukraine, as someone who was very critical of Russia and Vladimir Putin. You spoke directly to Putin in the interview, and not in a friendly way. You said, please stop. And so nothing you said, nothing I've seen you say is pro-Russian or anti-Ukraine. You're simply against watching your entire population, male population get killed. And so I don't understand, how is that treason?