In a recent letter to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson called for the firing of Kiev’s ambassador to Washington, Oksana Markarova. He accused her of election interference due to an event held on Sunday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Zelensky visited a facility that manufactures artillery shells used by Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. The Republican senator stated that the facility was in a politically contested state and led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, failing to include any Republicans as they were not invited. Johnson believes this tour was clearly partisan and designed to help Democrats, thus constituting election interference.
Mike Johnson expressed his party’s lack of trust in Markarova’s ability to serve in the United States, stating that she should be removed from her post immediately. Despite both Republicans and Democrats supporting Ukraine against Russia, Johnson said their relationship becomes strained when Zelensky and others in Kiev speak ill of Republican candidates in the media. He urged Zelensky to take immediate action on this matter, emphasizing that incidents like this cannot repeat themselves.
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 – 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 receives reconstruction money from the EU. However, 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.