Zelenskyy refuses to discuss demands for dismissal of Ukraine's ambassador to US

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that he can only discuss the issue of dismissing ambassadors with the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with Fox News

Details: Zelenskyy was responding to House Speaker Mike Johnson's ultimatum to dismiss Ukraine's Ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova.

"I am the president of Ukraine and I can discuss our ambassadors only with the speaker [of the parliament] of my country. That's the Constitution. I can't discuss this with Speaker Johnson, with all due respect," he said.

Background:

• Earlier this week, Johnson released a letter addressed to President Zelenskyy with categorical demands for Ukraine.
• Johnson attributed his ultimatum to an incident during Zelenskyy’s visit to the United States, specifically his trip to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania.
• He claimed that Ambassador Markarova had organised the event, which "failed to include a single Republican".
• Therefore, Johnson noted that the incident had caused "the Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova's ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country," and repeated the demand to Zelenskyy that the Ambassador of Ukraine should "be removed from her post immediately".
• Zelenskyy stressed that presidential candidate Donald Trump did not raise the issue of his visit to Pennsylvania during their meeting. "I was in Utah ... I was in Pennsylvania. It was [at] different times, but it was not about the election. I don't want to involve us [in] the election period of the United States," he said.
• He highlighted the importance of bipartisan support and mentioned that he had met with representatives from both parties, expressing gratitude to ordinary Americans for their backing.
  

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