Trump-Zelenskyy feud escalates as Republicans demand envoy’s removal

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington as the feud between Donald Trump and Volodymr Zelenskyy escalated and Republicans accused the Ukrainian leader of election interference.

In a public letter, Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week where the Ukrainian president thanked workers for providing desperately needed shells to his outgunned forces.

Johnson complained that Markarova had organised the visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as a "partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats". 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.

"The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference," the letter continued. "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."

On the same day, Trump in a campaign event in North Carolina attacked Zelenskyy directly and accused him of "refusing" to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin.

"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."

The accusations against Zelenskyy came after a 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, as "too radical".

Vance had earlier said a peace in Ukraine could entail Russia retaining the Ukrainian land it had occupied and the establishment a demilitarised zone with a heavily fortified frontline to prevent another Russian invasion.

"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."

After addressing the United Nations general assembly on Wednesday, Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Washington to present his "victory plan" to Joe Biden at the White House.

In his letter, Johnson also referred to Ukrainian officials criticizing Trump and Vance in remarks to the media.

"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."

Other top Republicans had criticized Zelenskyy this week after his remarks about Trump and Vance were published.

"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, according to US-based Punchbowl News.

"With conservatives, it's going to hurt Ukraine," Graham said.