Ukraine misplaced one of its most vocal supporters in Washington this weekend following the death of US Sen. Lindsey Graham, which got here simply hours after he returned from a journey to Kyiv.
Among the various tributes from the nation Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko mentioned that “throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, Senator Graham stood with Ukraine and in defense of democratic values.”
The Republican from South Carolina visited Ukraine 10 occasions – together with his most up-to-date journey final week – after the invasion in 2022 and co-sponsored robust sanctions laws in opposition to Russia. But he was additionally acutely conscious of US President Donald Trump’s early hostility to Ukrainian chief Volodymyr Zelensky.
Graham’s assist for Ukraine stemmed from lengthy expertise on nationwide safety points and a agency perception in an expansive international position for the US.
Like John McCain, one other Republican senator with whom he usually traveled, Graham was a agency supporter of the transatlantic alliance. He served in the US navy in Germany for 4 years before the autumn of the Berlin Wall.
In a 2011 interview, Graham mentioned: “I’m a Ronald Reagan Republican. I would like to shape world events rather than watch the world fall apart. That means you have to be engaged.”
Lindsey Graham mentioned he had ‘by no means been extra optimistic’ about ending battle in Ukraine throughout closing Kyiv journey
After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Graham was an early proponent of sending defensive weapons to Ukraine, whose navy was then brief of nearly every thing.
In the times after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he provoked outrage in Moscow by suggesting somebody in Putin’s interior circle ought to kill him. Graham requested whether or not there was a Brutus in Russia, including: “You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service.”
He later known as Putin a “thug and a bully” who would “get away with as much as he can until somebody stops him.”
Graham additionally supported legislation that might stop the US from recognizing any Russian declare of sovereignty over any half of Ukraine and backed a proposal for US troops to coach Ukrainian models on Ukrainian soil (which by no means got here to fruition).
He additionally co-sponsored the Stand With Ukraine Act, offering expanded protection transfers and safety cooperation.
“We’re sending a message to the world that the United States will stand with Ukraine — that their fight is our fight, and both their freedom and ours are at stake,” he mentioned of the laws.
However, the invoice by no means turned regulation.
Graham was acutely aware of Trump’s impression on the Republican Party. Graham mentioned final yr he wished to be “realistic” about discovering an finish to the battle by permitting Russia to retain some of the territory it seized.
He additionally backed Trump’s stress on NATO allies to spend extra. “Trump’s right — hell, they ought to pay more,” Graham mentioned. “And you know, nobody else could have done that.”
But essentially, Graham noticed NATO as a pillar of America’s safety. He maintained that the alliance’s defensive posture makes aggressors “think twice before starting wars.”
“He was a powerful advocate for America who believed strongly in the NATO Alliance,” mentioned NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Sunday.
Over the final 18 months Graham navigated the shifting sands of the Trump administration’s method to Ukraine.
After the disastrous Trump-Zelensky White House assembly in February final yr, Graham even advised the Ukrainian president ought to resign. “I don’t know if we could ever do business with Zelensky again,” he mentioned.
But he was quickly again to lobbying on Ukraine’s behalf, urging Trump to offer Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles and designing a drastic sanctions package deal with the objective of crippling sanctions in opposition to any nation importing Russian oil.
The senator was again in Kyiv days before his death, being warmly greeted by Zelensky, touring a Ukrainian drone plant and once more speaking up assist for Ukraine.
Hours before he left, Graham introduced that a bipartisan group of senators had reached an settlement with the White House to impose a new package deal of sanctions on Russia.
“We have the formula to end this war,” he mentioned. “Help Ukraine be more lethal. Let those supporting Russia know it’s going to be a price to be paid if you keep doing it.”