Top Republican calls for Zelenskyy to fire ambassador over Pennsylvania factory visit

Speaker Mike Johnson is demanding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “immediately” fire the country’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, over what he called a “shortsighted and intentionally political” visit to a Pennsylvania weapons factory that only included Democrats.

“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,” Johnson wrote in a letter on Wednesday.

Johnson further alleged the visit to Scranton, Pennsylvania, purposefully failed to include any Republican officials and said the event “cannot be repeated.” Zelenskyy’s office declined to comment on the letter.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who attended the visit with Zelenskyy and faces a competitive reelection this fall, said in a post on social network X on Wednesday that: “Attempts to smear [Zelenskyy’s] visit to our Commonwealth are an insult and a disgrace.”

The letter from Johnson marks the latest political fallout from Sunday’s visit, which sparked GOP anger across the Capitol.

House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) launched his own investigation into the visit earlier Wednesday, while two senior Senate Republicans urged Zelenskyy to stay out of U.S. domestic politics.

Zelenskyy is due to be on Capitol Hill for meetings on Thursday, including with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, among others. There is currently no planned meeting with Johnson.

Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.