WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fire his country’s ambassador to the U.S. as Republicans criticize the war-torn leader’s visit to a swing-state Pennsylvania site producing munitions for the Russia-Ukraine war as a political stunt.
The Republican Johnson’s demand Wednesday came as Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations in New York on the eve of his visit to Washington, D.C., where he has plans Thursday to brief senators on Capitol Hill about the war effort before meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House.
“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelenskyy.
Johnson said no Republicans were invited to the plant tour arranged by Ambassador Oksana Markarova to Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is Biden’s hometown.
Johnson called the visit an “intentionally political move” and said it “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.”
The speaker’s stern demand for the swift removal of Markarova, a well-received diplomat in Washington who has been a fixture on Capitol Hill since the outset of the war — even sitting as a guest in the House visitor’s gallery during pivotal speeches — comes at a daunting time for Ukraine as Zelenskyy works to ensure U.S. support for the war effort in an election year.
While Biden and Democrats in Congress have largely stood with Ukraine since the outset of the Russian invasion in 2022, sending billions in U.S. aid to buy weaponry and support services, Republicans have split deeply. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has turned the GOP toward a new America First movement that generally prefers to limit U.S. involvement overseas, and he often speaks admirably of Russia and its president, Vladmir Putin.
Johnson said that support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine “continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested,” noting comments from the Ukraine government about the top of the Trump-Vance presidential ticket.
Later Johnson, who said he won’t be meeting Thursday with Zelenskyy at the Capitol, said the ambassador “crossed the line” and the situation requires “immediate attention and action.”
Zelenskyy on Sunday visited the Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank the workers who are producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces.
The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the country to manufacture 155 mm artillery shells and has increased production over the past year. Ukraine has already received more than 3 million of them from the U.S.
Joining for the visit were the state’s leading Democrats, Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey and the area’s Rep. Matt Cartwright, but it is not clear if any Republicans were invited.
“It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“Thanks to people like these — in Ukraine, in America, and in all partner countries — who work tirelessly to ensure that life is protected.”
The visit sparked swift reprisals from the Republicans.
Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced Wednesday he was opening an investigation into whether the Biden-Harris administration used taxpayer-funded resources to fly Zelenskyy to Pennsylvania as a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Democratic nominee for president.
“The Committee seeks to determine whether the Biden-Harris Administration attempted to use a foreign leader to benefit Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign and, if so, necessarily committed an abuse of power,” he wrote in letters to Biden, the White House counsel and others in the administration.
Senate Republicans, even those who had supported aid for Ukraine, roundly criticized Zelenskyy on Wednesday. “He really messed up,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican.
However, Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a firm backer of Ukraine, suggested that Zelenskyy’s visit was not as partisan as it appeared. Wicker was also planning to meet with the Ukrainian president at the Capitol Thursday.
“If President Zelenskyy came to Mississippi, he would be accompanied by Republican officials because that’s who the people in their wisdom elected,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves in Washington and Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania contributed to this report.
