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to the usa. how could this happen and what next? we will talk about this today. my name is iryna sesak and this is svoboda live. i demand that you immediately release the ambassador of ukraine to the united states, oksana markarova. republican mike johnson, the speaker of the us house of representatives, made such a call to volodymyr zelensky. in a letter to the president of ukraine a day before the visit of the ukrainian delegation to washington, johnson declares oksana markarova lost credibility by organizing zelensky's visit to an ammunition plant in pennsylvania with democrats, but without republicans, they were not invited there, the letter says. the republican calls the trip to the munitions factory a partisan pre-election event of the democrats, and johnson views zelensky's participation in this trip as, i quote: clear interference in the election process. in the end, the speaker of the house of representatives refused to meet with zelensky today in washington,

he was unable to schedule it because he was very busy. meanwhile, the investigation into zelenskyi's visit to the ammunition plant in pennsylvania was also initiated by the republicans in the us congress, who explain that they want to find out whether the biden administration tried to use zelenskyi in the presidential campaign of vice president kamala harris, and there are many cases of abuse of official powers. there has been no official reaction of the ukrainian authorities to the call to release markarova from the office of the president and the ministry of foreign affairs. rfe/rl appealed to zelenskyi's team and the ministry of foreign affairs with a request to comment, so we are waiting. but what really happened, why the state of pennsylvania, which zelensky visited, how important it is for the election campaign, and most importantly, will markarova remain in her position? we discuss the latest events in the usa with oleksiy kovalenko, a journalist of the ukrainian voice of america service, he joins our broadcast. oleksii, good evening. greetings to you, greetings to our viewers. alexei what are the latest

news surrounding president zelenskyi's visit to the usa and how should criticism from side of the republicans and demands to release the ambassador of ukraine in america? yes, in fact, there is quite a lot of news, quite a lot of news regarding the visit, in particular, of zelensky today, to the capitalist conference and the expected visit to the white house. yes, today we have already heard the announcement from us president joe biden about seven steps and intensification of aid to ukraine. these. the seven steps include $5.5 billion in aid to ukraine under the special presidential powers program and pursuant to a special white house request to congress, and the allocation of another 2,400 million under the program for the promotion of the ukrainian security initiative, these funds, which will go to the order of weapons from american manufacturers, which, which may later arrive, which

will later arrive to... american legislators, in the senate these meetings are bipartisan, and so zelensky meets with the head of the democratic majority in the senate chuck schumer, he also meets with mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate, and we also know that there are also other senators from both parties with whom. president of ukraine, at the same time we know that there is a certain scandal regarding the visit of the president of ukraine zelenskyi to the weapons factory in pennsylvania, actually these events developed quite quickly, and as you mentioned, yesterday there was already an announcement from the committee of the oversight council of the congress regarding the investigation about...

whether there was indeed interference, interference by the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyi, in the presidential campaigns of the presidents races this year and whether ... the garis campaign is trying to use zelensky to gain an advantage in the state of pennsylvania. it is worth noting here why the state of pennsylvania is very important for both parties. this state is very important for both the republican and the democratic parties, because both, both candidates from the republicans and democrats so far have a very similar number of votes in both states in this state, and actually we know that this state is a state where... . the favor, the favor of the people fluctuates, and therefore both candidates, and donald trump, and kamela garis, are trying to win the favor of voters in this state, and actually, what some, some republicans blame, is that , firstly, federal funds were used

for president zelensky to visit this factory, and also that together with the president, president zelenskyi was the governor. shapiro's pennsylvania, as well as other democrats, and yes, and in particular there was no representative from the republican party. yesterday we had the opportunity to get a comment from the speaker of the house of representatives, republican mike johnson, regarding, ah, regarding the meeting with zelensky, which he has not yet scheduled, and actually he emphasized that a this meeting may not take place due to his... schedule, but at the same time, if this if the meeting took place, they would talk about the situation with pennsylvania and the calls of the republicans to release the ambassador of ukraine to the usa, oksana markarov. i suggest you listen to this comment by johnson. president zelenskyi will be at the congress. will

you meet him? and if not, is it related to his trip to pennsylvania? no, i wasn't able to arrange a meeting with zelensky this week because i had a very... busy schedule, as you all can see, i'm not even sure if i'll be in washington tomorrow, but if we did meet let's talk about this letter regarding the dismissal of the ambassador, i think it was a terrible development and it worsened the relationship between the two countries at a very difficult time for ukraine, and i regret it, but actually we heard the words of the speaker of the house of representatives , and also we have already spoken about the calls of some republicans to be fired. the ambassador of ukraine to the usa, actually mike johnson also commented on this issue, i suggest you listen to his words. are you calling on president zelenskyi to fire ambassador markarov, can you explain this and what will happen if she is not fired? i sent a letter

to president zelensky because the ambassador crossed the line and i think she dragged him into it. they campaigned on behalf of the democratic party and effectively gave their tacit support to kamala. this is not something our allies or any foreign ones should do of the state i believe that this is interference in elections. i think this is an inexcusable violation and i think the ambassador should take responsibility for it and be fired, so i asked him to do it immediately. i think this is an important question. so, we heard from the speaker of the house of representatives himself, what was the essence of the republicans' accusations. accuse the ambassador of ukraine in the usa and what the republicans accuse the garis company of. oleksiy, please tell me, how can the story with the investigation of the congress develop? on which what is the situation there now and what can it turn into? actually, as mentioned,

this investigation was announced yesterday, yesterday in the committee of the supervisory board. actually, we do not yet have any other development regarding this issue, but here... it is worth noting that there were precedents before, in particular in the summer of this year, when the president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi visited an american plant, i think, in the state of utah, and during this visit, only the republican state governor, a representative of the republican party, was present party, and therefore actually, taking into account these precedents, the actual... fate of the investigation is unknown. and briefly, i would like to clarify whether anything is known about president zelensky's meeting with the presidential candidate and vice president of the united states, kamala garis, because it was planned, but given the fact that donald trump also refused, so did mike johnson , then will she be

what you know? yes, it is expected that this meeting will take place as planned, i just saw that in the white house schedule this meeting is scheduled for... also press conference of presidential candidate from the democratic party haris and president of ukraine volodymyr zelensky at 3 o'clock washington time. obviously they will. to discuss ukraine's continued support and efforts, the efforts of the united states and the efforts of american partners to support ukraine in the war. thank you, it was oleksiy kovalenko, a journalist of the ukrainian voice of america service. thanks. well, we continue to discuss the situation in the united states with volodymyr dubovyk, director of the international center of research, associate professor of the department of international relations of odesa national university. named after mechnikov, who joins our broadcast. mr. volodymyr, good evening to you. good evening, i greet you.

in your opinion, the visit with the participation of zelensky to the ammunition plant can really be considered as interference in the us elections, or is it just such a political move on the part of the republicans. there is no way to appreciate it, it's just a far-fetched hysteria, and it's so artificial on the part of the republicans, it's a pity that it's happening, and we see it. what it is in principle agreed, everything is with the party candidate trump for the post of president, trump suddenly starts saying such bad things about zelenskyi and ukraine, and talking more about his so-called peace plan, and at the same time we see the beginning of an investigation, as if this visit by mr. comer initiated, because this is the most trusted person loyal to mr. trump in the group of representatives who are useful to her. and has long been advocating anti-ukrainian theses and narratives and has already accused ukraine

many times of the fact that in ukraine everything it's bad, and even there christians are persecuted, so another one, he is one of those who do it much more often among the trumpists, and now this letter from johnson, you know, because it seems that all of it is agreed to a certain extent, because if zelensky went to .. of the factory, it’s just to say, really, thank you to these workers who came with him from the american side, well, who is to blame for those republicans that they didn’t come, the governor is josh piro, we understand, others have joined, they are demanding, they are probably trying to make use of this visit important for their own political goals, but no one prevented the republicans from being there, so in any case, you know, because it all started earlier, and simply the republicans... returned to such an openly anti-ukrainian position, which they had before was, both trumpian and

johnsonian, because the johnsons have recently tried to be remembered as the person who unblocked aid to ukraine, but at the same time , this person blocked aid to ukraine for half a year, and since then it has been said several times that he is pro-ukrainian and supports ukraine, but on the other hand, he remains absolutely attached to trump, part of his corner. the republican party is dependent on trump, on other members of the house of representatives, who are sitting there, and are trump-oriented, so i think it's very unfortunate that this is happening, it's unfortunate that even though our leadership, the team, our political authorities have recently tried to build such bridges to the republicans, to the trumpists, but nevertheless they chose such a path, you know, a return to... the worst of these anti-ukrainian narratives, which, unfortunately, were formed by trump, and for some time already, and in

principle, he simply decided to return to them now for certain reasons. mr. volodymyr, you mentioned that the us congress has already initiated an investigation into this situation, there they are trying to find out whether the biden administration accidentally tried to use president zelensky for the benefit of the election campaign of kamala harris, and the congress is already recalling the history of 2019, as house of representatives. then controlled by democrats, impeached then- to president trump due to an alleged attempt to use, again, zelensky in his presidential campaign. history can repeat itself, don't you think? well, maybe they are really trying to repeat it, to make such a mirror, as they say, because since the time when the house of representatives announced the impeachment of president trump then, since then, they, the republicans, have not raised their hopes for what they will be able to do something. similar to president biden, they started it with an impeachment attempt on some of the

hunter biden, his son, but later the main element fell apart, because the one who testified that he did something wrong, that gunter, at one time it turned out that this person gave false information, in principle, in general, most likely is an agent of the russian special services, and it all fell apart with shame for the republicans, now they believe that zelensky's visit to the plant in pennsylvania, that he ... somehow in the crazy pressure in the 19th year that trump put on the young president zelensky , demanding compromising on the biden family, but this is not at all equal, one thing, it was that. what did biden and trump do when he stopped military aid, when he simply demanded openly in a telephone conversation on july 27, if i am not mistaken, in 2019 from zelensky to open, to announce some investigations, such others, to open some criminal cases against guntor biden , and another attempt here is that the president comes to the territory of america, invited,

legally goes to that plant, he is accompanied by the governor of this state, well, who is to blame here, how did it happen that this plant is in pennsylvania, in scranton, and not in some other state where the governor is a republican, then there would be a republican, and what would happen, then the democrats would be hysterical, if we say, say , zelensky went to some state, another republican is the governor, so this is a completely made-up reason, it is just a little unexpected, expected, because they have been on such an anti-ukrainian wave for a long time, but at the same time, situationally sudden such... trump's pre-election turnaround. in this context, precisely the interference in the elections and the trips of the presidents, i want to remind you about the trips of viktor orbán, the hungarian prime minister, to donald trump, who was already a presidential candidate at the time. it was especially in the summer. orban met only with trump, actually campaigned for trump, and republicans did not have any questions about interference or non-interference in the election. it's a team's double standards. what

do you think? absolutely, the americans are talking about it now. it is not limited to orbán, it is more. refers to the emir of qatar's recent visit quite recently , president trump also hosted the current prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu, in his mansion at his villa. but you know, there have never been standards for him, only for his opponents, there are no laws for him, because he says that he is persecuted, but at the same time he has already been recognized twice by american courts as having violated american law. well, unfortunately, american law, you know, it doz... continue to run for the office of president, so it's absolutely double standard and previously violated the logan act, there is a logan act in the united states that a person who is elected president until he enters the white house cannot engage in foreign policy, then

maliciously violated this law at one time in 2017, at the end of 16 at the beginning in 2017, when trump was elected president, because he was not yet president, and that, in particular, then, in particular, his national security adviser met with mr. kislyak, the russian ambassador, we can recall all this, so you know, now, because some say , what is it, a how is it, well, trump said there that he allowed zelensky and jones to vote for help, but this thread, you know, this history of trump's anti-ukrainian sentiments, his entourage, has been at least since 2016 , and that's why i'm absolutely now. is not surprised by these cynical words that mr. trump is now uttering at his rallies, and about ukraine, which, as if destroying itself, does not mention russia, russian aggression, that putin, whom he adores, you know, and with whom he stood in helsinki, when he was the president, and just repeated like a parrot all the words of the president putin, in particular, said that i believe that russia did not interfere in the 2016 elections, but that their

own state secret services, which investigated it, came to the conclusion that russia interfered ... , it destroys the american political model, the american political system, and with it drags its traditional american responsible foreign policy. i also want to return a little to that letter from johnson to zelensky, in which he demands the release of oksana markarova, what future awaits oksana markarova, your opinion? it is obvious that if trump becomes president, it will be difficult to keep her in office, but how should the ukrainian side react, because in the diplomatic and political... ukraine seems to support markarov, pressure on ambassadors, by the way, this is not new either phenomenon, but i will simply remind you that at one time there was pressure on ambassador chaly, who represented ukraine, and when ukraine was accused in the 16th year, this is not the first time, that ukraine interferes in the american elections, because that there, let's say, we gave our american colleagues information about

manofort, as he worked here in ukraine, at that time manofort was managing the trump election campaign. for a second, and then trump managed to remove it, and there was also pressure on his own ambassador, the us ambassador to ukraine, mir ivanovych, which at one time was crazy, the kind of pressure that trump's team exerted at the time, so such, you know, undiplomatic movements for them not news, regarding markarova, she is, of course, a very professional person in her position, the situation now is very difficult for zelenskyi, on the one hand, but, well, it is probably not necessary to go to such concessions to such blackmail are absolutely unfounded. to fire a person who fulfills the interests of the president, in the interests of ukraine, works there in america, because someone there, you know, fell into some kind of hysteria in the morning, but on the other hand, still uh... relations with both parties, preservation of bipartisanship, you know, support and relations, in particular with tambur trump, in case he suddenly becomes the president of the united states of america, returns to

the white house, it is also important, and therefore, you know, to marry her in office then, because high to connect, it is also risky, i can’t even imagine for myself, this is a decision for president zelenskyi’s team, but for myself... i can’t imagine what decisions he will accept on today’s basis, under today’s conditions, i think it is possible under pressure under these circumstances and for the sake of the country's interests , the ambassador will still have to be removed, but on the other hand, of course, there are no grounds from the point of view of her professional activity, there are no such grounds. mr. volodymyr, you have already started talking a little about it, i want to ask you in more detail how now the ukrainian side should build cooperation with trump's team, and how realistic is it even before the presidential election itself... does a personal meeting between trump and zelenskyy look like? well, you know, it is very difficult to work with them, there are such obstacles,

we did everything, found, found some contacts, found, called, called, when trump was nominated by the party, then zelensky called, they talked, ours talked normally and so on, but on the other hand, trump breaks down again on this topic, uses anti-ukrainian language and says that this war ah, well, she didn’t understand, and who is leading her against ukraine, and again not a single bad word about putin, only that ukraine should accept the russian ultimatum, this is his peace plan, as we basically guessed that no other there is no other peace plan, apart from the fact that there will be pressure on ukraine, if he becomes president, so that ukraine simply agrees to russian terms and conditions, and the russian ultimatum, you know, to build these relations. it won't be difficult, of course, you can do something again talk to him and try to convince him that if america does this, it will mean that america is weak, america is retreating, abandoning its allies, it will be

very bad for america's reputation in the world, but for trump there is something special, you know, a very specific attitude to the american reputation, he does not have a different point of view that america has built its alliances, has its allies and should stand for the democrats in the world, he... he does not really believe all this, he values ​​these traditional things for important for american, you know global role, international politics, national security, so we can still say simply that putin will laugh at him there when he retreats and abandons ukraine to its own devices, that is, you can try different things, but now it will be very difficult to do this with him, but let's try, if it happens that he will really come back to himself, one more question, what do you think about... kamala garis, won't the democratic team try to avoid a meeting with zelensky, so as not to attract even more attention from republican side do you think the question, because i heard it when you

asked your correspondent, and a colleague from the voice of america says that a meeting is planned, that perhaps there is really such a diplomatic imbalance at the moment, you see, they are not meeting with the republicans, they are meeting with the candidate of the democrats, well, i think what if, after all, the meeting is planned and it is about a person. which consistently supports ukraine, and i am talking about a person who says this all the time, and at the debate a lot was said about supporting ukraine, which is necessary for supporting ukraine, and who is part of the team of the current president, with whom zelensky is currently meeting, this is the main purpose of the meeting with the current president, she is the vice president, and a person who has a chance to become the president, you know, and lead the white people of america, as the president from january next year, then you can’t cancel here, you just can’t, it will be... already disrespectful to kamala harris to the white house, you know, in which she also sits except for president biden, well, to a certain extent, but it is not physically her residence, but she in the same

part of the same bivouac of this one the team itself, so there is no need to go to, i think, you know, any maneuvers or changes or cancel this plan, we need to go to this meeting and emphasize during this meeting that we are not meeting with a representative of the democratic party of the united states of america, but with vice president a part of president biden's team, a person who supports ukraine, and just like that, so i hope that there will be no changes in the plans here. volodymyr, thank you for your thoughts, it was volodymyr dubovyk, director of the center for international studies, associate professor of the department of international relations, odessa national university named after mechnikov. thank you. meanwhile, us president joe biden announced the allocation of almost 8 billion dollars to ukraine for weapons. in particular, he instructed the pentagon to allocate all remaining funds for security assistance to ukraine, which were expected until the end of his tenure as president. the american president noted ukraine's successes in the war, but added that

there is still a lot of work ahead. that is why i announced, i quote, a sharp increase in security assistance to ukraine and a number of additional actions to help ukraine win this war. end of quote. the aid package provides, in particular , the strengthening of air defense, the provision of a new patriot battery and missiles for it, and for the first time in the list long-range j-sow bombs, which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 130 km. in addition, the us will train ukrainian pilots to fly f-16 fighters. he thanked the us for its defense assistance. president of ukraine volodymyr zelenskyi. i am grateful to the united states for providing the most important means to protect our people. additional patriot air defense battery, other means of air defense and interceptors, drones, long -range missiles and ammunition of the air-to-ground class, as well as funds for strengthening the defense and industrial base of ukraine. we have always valued strong bipartisan support in

the united states and among americans in ukraine's just cause of victory over russian aggression. zelensky himself brought a plan for the victory of ukraine to the united states and expects the support of this plan from his american colleague joe biden. the ukrainian president will show it to the american leader today during a meeting in washington, they wrote earlier can, but will it find support? the wall street journal writes that the us is allegedly not impressed with ukraine's victory plan. they said that kyiv's proposal focused only on weapons. and relaxed restrictions on ranged shots. western officials familiar with the details of the plan told the publication about this. according to them, the document does not offer a clear path to victory and there is no comprehensive strategy for ukraine in the war. and this worries the american administration. it is in the article. the current state of the ukrainian system has confused biden's top aides, said us officials who visited kyiv in recent weeks and were familiarized with

the elements. plan, they hoped to hear something tangible that the biden administration could support, with only four months left in office. ukraine's plan broadly covers battlefield needs, domestic political changes and the economy, a senior state department official said tuesday, but u.s. and european officials said the most elaborate part of the plan is the first phase, the weapons-related requests, while the rest key elements have less specifics. and oleg shamshur, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of ukraine, ambassador of ukraine to the usa in 2006-2010 joins our broadcast. good evening to you. good evening. mr. olezh, what should we expect from the current meeting between biden and zelensky? what are your predictions? forecasts may vary. this meeting is certainly a key moment in

the president's trip. to ukraine to the united states, if you look at it within the framework of the peace plan and based on the needs of the ukrainian side, the main issue is now, as it stands, it is basically what it was, er, all the time since the beginning of its large-scale war with russia, which is the provision of military... aid to ukraine, and in the amount and in the nomenclature that is needed to defeat russia, for victory, for change, for changing the situation on the battlefield, so biden already announced something before the meeting, that is, it is clear what we will get, i will not repeat myself, it has already been said, it is very

important, but together with... a key issue is also the issue of removing any restrictions on the use of american weapons and, first of all, to hit targets on the territory of russia. this is an absolutely absurd restriction. in those comments that i managed to read in the american press, it is indicated that the announcement was made by biden. this is very important, but still, as they write, he still stopped a step short of giving permission to use american weapons to destroy a whole on the territory of russia, and it seems to me that if this will happen as a result of the conversation, but i i am very skeptical about this, then it will be really key where.