Senator Lindsey Graham Dies After Kyiv Visit and Sanctions Push

Senator Lindsey Graham died over the weekend after visiting Kyiv at the end of last week. The Atlantic reported that the visit marked at least his tenth trip to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022. Graham met twice in the preceding week with Serhii Kyslytsia, deputy head of President Zelensky’s administration, once at the NATO summit in Ankara and again in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian state railway company provided a special train with a private cabin containing two narrow beds for his delegation on these visits. ” In May 2023 he told President Zelensky that U.S. aid to Ukraine had been “the best money we’ve ever spent” and stated that the United States had reduced Russian combat power by 50 percent without any American deaths.

Those comments prompted the Kremlin to issue an arrest warrant for Graham. ” Graham sponsored a bill last year that would impose severe economic sanctions on Russia. Last week he and several Senate colleagues announced that a revised version had won Trump administration approval.

Kyslytsia told The Atlantic that Graham’s “soft Carolina accent delivering tough decisions will be missed” and expressed hope that colleagues would “celebrate his life” by passing the sanctions bill.