(CNN) — Ukraine lost one of its most vocal supporters in Washington this weekend following the death of US Sen. Lindsey Graham, which came just hours after he returned from a trip to Kyiv.
Among the many tributes from the country Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said 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 times – including his most recent trip last week – after the invasion in 2022 and co-sponsored tough sanctions legislation against Russia. But he was also acutely aware of US President Donald Trump’s early hostility to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
Graham’s support for Ukraine stemmed from long experience on national security issues and a firm belief in an expansive global role for the US.
Like John McCain, another Republican senator with whom he often traveled, Graham was a firm supporter of the transatlantic alliance. He served in the US military in Germany for four years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In a 2011 interview, Graham said: “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.”
After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Graham was an early proponent of sending defensive weapons to Ukraine, whose military was then short of almost everything.
In the days after the start of the full-scale invasion, he provoked outrage in Moscow by suggesting someone in Putin’s inner circle should kill him. Graham asked whether there was a Brutus in Russia, adding: “You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service.”
He later called Putin a “thug and a bully” who would “get away with as much as he can until somebody stops him.”
Perhaps because of this criticism, Russian politicians and state media outlets were quick to describe Graham as a “Russophobe” and a “warmonger” after his death.
Graham also supported legislation that would prevent the US from recognizing any Russian claim of sovereignty over any part of Ukraine and backed a proposal for US troops to train Ukrainian units on Ukrainian soil (which never came to fruition).
He also co-sponsored the Stand With Ukraine Act, providing expanded defense transfers and security 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 said of the legislation.
However, the bill never became law.
Graham was conscious of Trump’s impact on the Republican Party. Graham said last year he wanted to be “realistic” about finding an end to the war by allowing Russia to retain some of the territory it seized.
He also backed Trump’s pressure on NATO allies to spend more. “Trump’s right — hell, they ought to pay more,” Graham said. “And you know, nobody else could have done that.”
But fundamentally, Graham saw NATO as a pillar of America’s security. 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,” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Sunday.
Over the last 18 months Graham navigated the shifting sands of the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine.
After the disastrous Trump-Zelensky White House meeting in February last year, Graham even suggested the Ukrainian president should resign. “I don’t know if we could ever do business with Zelensky again,” he said.
But he was soon back to lobbying on Ukraine’s behalf, urging Trump to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles and designing a drastic sanctions package with the goal of crippling sanctions against any country importing Russian oil.
The senator was back in Kyiv days before his death, being warmly greeted by Zelensky, touring a Ukrainian drone plant and again talking up support for Ukraine.
Hours before he left, Graham announced that a bipartisan group of senators had reached an agreement with the White House to impose a new package of sanctions on Russia.
“We have the formula to end this war,” he said. “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.”
The-CNN-Wire
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