US House speaker urges Zelenskyy to remove Ukrainian ambassador

ISTANBUL

US House Speaker Mike Johnson urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday to remove Kyiv’s ambassador to Washington after she organized a visit for the president to a US military facility earlier this week.

“As you (Zelenskyy) have said, Ukrainians have tried to avoid being ‘captured by American domestic politics,’ and ‘influencing the choices of the American people’ ahead of the November election.

“Clearly that objective was abandoned this week when Ambassador (Oksana) Markarova organized an event in which you toured an American manufacturing site,” Johnson said in a letter to Zelenskyy, which he posted on X.

He was referring to Zelenskyy, who visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in the state of Pennsylvania on Monday, as he was in the US for the UN General Assembly meetings and a high-level session on Ukraine at the UN Security Council.​​​​​​​

Johnson said the visit was conducted in a “politically contested” state and led by a “top political surrogate” for Democratic presidential candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris and it did not include a single Republican representative “on purpose.”

He claimed the visit was an event “designed to help Democrats,” defining it as “clearly election interference.”

“This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova's ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country. She should be removed from her post immediately,” he said, expressing that foreign countries should avoid interfering in US domestic politics.

He also said support to end the Russia-Ukraine war continues to be bipartisan, but that ties are being “unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished" when top Republican candidates are "targeted" in the media by Ukrainian government officials.

“These incidents cannot be repeated,” he added.

Zelenskyy, as well as Ukrainian authorities, have not yet commented on Johnson’s remarks.