The Republican Party has decided not to hide its animosity towards Ukraine and, especially, its president, Volodymyr Zelenski, who is meeting with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris - the former as president and the latter as a White House candidate - to explain his plan, which has not been disclosed yet, on how to end the war between his country and Russia.
Initially, Zelenski was also scheduled to meet with the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. However, the chances of that happening seem remote. Trump has been insulting Zelenski throughout the campaign, criticizing US support for Ukraine, and showing admiration, as usual, towards Vladimir Putin. His vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, is openly pro-Russian. This led Zelenski to harshly criticize him in an interview with The New Yorker on Monday, calling him "too radical" and recommending him to "read a bit of history."
Nevertheless, Zelenski's resentment towards the Republicans has a clearer reason: for six months, that party blocked the delivery of military aid to Kiev in the US Congress, simply trying to instrumentalize US national security policy to give a political victory to Trump. All the territorial losses suffered by Ukraine this year are attributable to the suspension of aid from December to May.
Regardless, the Republicans counterattacked. The Speaker of the House, 'Trumpist' Mike Johnson, demanded the immediate dismissal of the Ukrainian ambassador in Washington, Oksana Makarova, a professional diplomat who has effectively defended her country's interests in the US amid the Russian invasion. Johnson's demand was due to Zelenski's visit to a 155-millimeter shell factory being sent to Ukraine in Scranton, the hometown of Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.
Zelenski's trip to Scranton was a clear sign of support for Biden and, by extension, Harris. Pennsylvania is a state that could decide the November 5 elections, and the key vote in that territory will be from small industrial towns like Biden's hometown. The Ukrainian president was accompanied by Democratic politicians, although it is unknown if Republicans were not invited or if they, in their 'honeymoon' with Putin, declined to attend.
Johnson expressed his satisfaction by demanding from a foreign government something that falls under the Executive, not the Legislative branch. The Speaker of the House wrote to the Ukrainian president in surreal terms: "I demand that you immediately dismiss the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Makarova," alleging that she "cannot serve fairly and efficiently as a diplomat in this country." In his rant, Johnson even criticized Zelenski for traveling to Scranton on an official US State plane, despite that being the established practice for foreign heads of state and government visits in the country.
In another display of investigating non-existent scandals, the Republican House of Representatives announced an investigation into Zelenski's visit. Interestingly, when Zelenski traveled to the very Republican state of Utah in July and met with the governor of that state, Spencer Cox, Trump supporters said nothing, perhaps because he was far ahead in the polls then, while now he is tied with Harris.
Johnson's attitude did not come as a surprise. Since taking office a year ago, the representative from Louisiana has stood out for his absolute submission to Trump, as well as his habit of speaking with God at night, who he claims has indicated that he will lead the US to "a moment like the crossing of the Red Sea" by the Israelites in the Bible and the Torah. Neither did Trump's attitude surprise, as on Thursday, he harshly attacked Ukraine with a speech full of lies indirectly asking the country for the same thing Vance did, surrender, using arguments that seemed to come from the Russian state TV channel RT or the website Sputnik.
"Ukraine is finished, it is no longer Ukraine, it will never be again. You cannot replace all those cities and towns," said Trump, in a series of statements where it was unclear if he was confusing Ukraine with Gaza. "Nothing is standing, the crops are dying, there is nothing left for the Ukrainians. Those buildings do not exist, those cities do not exist, and we keep giving billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenski." Portraying Ukraine as Hiroshima after the atomic bomb, the former president said, "It is a country that has been annihilated, impossible to rebuild. It will take hundreds of years to rebuild it. There is not enough money to rebuild it even if all the countries in the world unite."
Finally, Trump once again brought up the scarecrow he has been using since the Russian invasion began two and a half years ago, sending US soldiers to Ukraine. "They won't be happy," he said, presumably referring to his rival, Kamala Harris, "until they send American kids to Ukraine. That's what they want." Here, the candidate revealed Harris's secret plan: a war not only with Russia but also with Ukraine. Because he said, "The mothers and fathers of the United States do not want their kids to go fight against Ukraine and Russia, and we will not let our soldiers die on the other side of the ocean."