Mike Johnson has accused Kiev’s envoy of meddling in American politics
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova visiting the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, September 22, 2024 © Sgt. 1st Class Curt Loter / US Army via AP
The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has called for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to fire Kiev’s ambassador to Washington, Oksana Markarova, accusing her of interference in American elections.
“I demand that you immediately fire Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelensky on Wednesday. The senior Republican noted that Markarova had organized an event on Sunday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Zelensky visited a site that manufactures artillery shells used by Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.
“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited,” Johnson wrote. “The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference.”
The Louisiana Republican said that his party has lost trust in Markarova’s ability to serve in the US and that she “should be removed from her post immediately.”
While both Republicans and Democrats support Ukraine against Russia, Johnson wrote, “our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished” when Zelensky and others in Kiev speak ill of Republican candidates in the media.
“These incidents cannot be repeated,” Johnson wrote, urging Zelensky to “take immediate action.”
The speaker’s letter comes after several Republican lawmakers called for a congressional investigation into Zelensky’s visit, accusing the Democrats of using military assets – namely the plane used to fly the Ukrainian leader to Pennsylvania – to inappropriately support Harris in her presidential campaign.
In an interview with New Yorker magazine published on Sunday, Zelensky claimed Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war,” while he described Vance as “too radical” and his outline of a ceasefire proposal as “an awful idea.”
Earlier this month, Vance sketched out a proposal under which the current frontline becomes a “heavily fortified” demilitarized zone, Ukraine gives up the idea of joining NATO, and Kiev gets reconstruction money from the EU.
Zelensky has insisted that peace is only possible if Ukraine recovers all the territories it has claimed, including Crimea and four regions that have voted to join Russia. Moscow has said their status is non-negotiable while dismissing Zelensky’s proposal as ludicrous and divorced from reality.