After Trump’s ‘salesman’ jibe, Republicans target Ukrainian envoy over Zelenskyy’s arms factory visit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the US did not sit well with the Republicans as the party’s presidential nominee slammed the comedian-turned-politician. After former US President Donald Trump lambasted Zelenskyy and claimed that he is “refusing” to negotiate a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US House Speaker Mike Johnson condemned the Ukrainian leader’s visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

In a public letter on Wednesday, Johnson demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington, Oksana Markarova, after Zelenskyy’s controversial visit. He complained that Markarova had organised the visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”.

The accusation by the Republicans became ripe since the event was attended by the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who has campaigned in support of Kamala Harris. “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 in a letter on congressional letterhead addressed to the Ukrainian embassy.

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“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference. This shortsighted and intentional 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,” the letter continued.

Trump refuses to meet Zelenskyy

During a North Carolina rally, held the same day Johnson issued the letter, Trump called out Zelenskyy for taking billions of dollars from the United States. “The president of Ukraine is in our country. He is making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president, me,” Trump said. “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy.”

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Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign made it clear that he will not be meeting the Ukrainian leader. Trump’s barrage of attacks against Zelenskyy came after the latter’s controversial interview with the New Yorker in which he questioned Trump’s plan to end Ukraine’s war with Russia and sharply criticized Republicans’ vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance. Zelenskyy went on to refer to the Ohio senator as “too radical”.

Earlier, Vance proposed that peace in Ukraine could entail Russia retaining the Ukrainian land it has annexed. “His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice,” Zelenskyy said in the interview with the New Yorker. “This brings us back to the question of the cost and who shoulders it. The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable. But I do not consider this concept of his a plan, in any formal sense,” he added.

In the recent letter, Johnson also brought up the comments made by Zelenskyy about both Trump and Vance. “Additionally, as I have clearly stated in the past, all foreign nations should avoid opining on or interfering in American domestic politics,” he said.

“Support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government,” the Republican Speaker of the House averred.

Other top Republicans condemned Zelenskyy’s recent remarks. “I don’t mind him going to a munitions plant thanking people for helping Ukraine. But I think his comments about JD Vance and President Trump were out of bounds,” said the Republican senator Lindsey Graham. “With conservatives, it’s going to hurt Ukraine,” the veteran Republican politician added.