Russian Propaganda Event To Take Place At EU Parliament
On September 16, the AfD is holding an event at the European Parliament titled “Ukraine: Dare to Choose Peace — Diplomacy, Not Escalation,” The main speaker is Iuliia Mendel, former press secretary to the President of Ukraine. She will be joined by AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla, MEP Hans Neuhoff, and Weltwoche editor-in-chief Roger Köppel. But Russia didn’t wait until September 16.
Preparing the narrative
Ahead of the event, Russian state and pro-Russian media began actively circulating Mendel’s statements about the need for negotiations with Russia, the possibility of reduced European funding for Ukraine, problems with mobilization, and the state of Ukrainian democracy.
Russian state and Kremlin-aligned outlets, including RIA Novosti, Sputnik, Komsomolskaya Pravda, News.ru, EADaily, and others, have been involved in amplifying and legitimizing these narratives, systematically republishing Mendel’s previous remarks.
These messages are then picked up by alternative European media outlets.
In effect, the audience is being primed in advance for a specific narrative:
- Europe is tired of Ukraine.
- Support will decline.
- Ukrainians are being forced to fight.
- Kyiv doesn’t want negotiations.
- The solution is to reach an agreement with Russia.
The participants’ Russian connections
The lineup of participants also deserves attention because of their previous contacts with Russia.
AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla has a documented history of direct contact with official Russian institutions.
In December 2020, he personally met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. In 2021, at the invitation of the Russian side, he attended the Moscow Conference on International Security, organized by Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chrupalla continued to advocate maintaining channels of communication with Moscow, ending military support for Ukraine, and restoring German-Russian dialogue.
The event’s organizer, AfD MEP Hans Neuhoff, has also maintained direct contacts with Russian representatives. In 2025, he traveled to Russia to participate in the BRICS-Europe forum in Sochi, where Russian participants included Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.
Roger Köppel also plays a notable role.
The Weltwoche editor-in-chief has repeatedly visited Russia and provided his media platform to prominent figures in Russia’s propaganda ecosystem, including Vladimir Solovyov and Margarita Simonyan.
The question that follows
So the main question is not simply what Mendel will say in Strasbourg. The real question is who, within minutes of her remarks, will turn those words into “evidence” that Ukraine itself is supposedly standing in the way of peace.
