Senator Lindsey Graham’s sudden death has removed a “vital diplomatic buffer between Washington and Kyiv”, experts have said, complicating support for Ukraine at a vital juncture of the war with Russia.
Jaroslava Barbieri, a Research Fellow at the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, told the Independent that Graham has been a critical voice in US foreign policy when it comes to support for Ukraine.
The Republican senator for South Carolina was one of few vocally pro-Ukraine voices in the Republican Party. He used his leverage in the Senate to lobby for military aid to Ukraine dating back to Russia’s initial illegal invasion of Crimea in 2014, per CNN.
Since the invasion of Crimea, Graham, a prominent foreign policy hawk, has pushed for legislation that would prevent the U.S. from ever recognising seized Ukrainian land as Russian, maintaining NATO funding, and increasing sanctions on the Russian economy.
He even once called for someone in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle to assassinate the Russian president, saying they would be “doing your country – and the world – a great service,” per the Associated Press.
Ms Barbieri told the Independent: “Senator Lindsey Graham served as a crucial bridge between traditional Republican foreign policy hawks and Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ administration, using his direct personal access to champion robust support for Ukraine and secure recent White House backing for major secondary sanctions against Russia.
“His sudden passing removes a vital diplomatic buffer between Washington and Kyiv.”
Prior to his death, Graham was pushing to impose stronger sanctions on Russia via bipartisan legislation, the Sanctioning Russia Act, alongside Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, 80. Blumenthal told the Associated Press that he will still push the bill forward, seeing it as a “fitting tribute” to the late senator.
Two days before his passing, senators backing the long-delayed sanctions bill, said they had reached an agreement with the White House on advancing the legislation forward. The bill would place more economic sanctions on Russia nations bolstering Moscow’s economy. It is intended to help spur peace negotiations, according to Radio Free Europe.
Graham, 71, passed away suddenly from what a preliminary medical report has called an aortic dissection on Saturday. President Donald Trump told NBC that he’d spoken to the Senator shortly before he passed, saying “other than being tired, he was fine.”
Graham was described by fellow senator, Democrat Adam Schiff, as the “Trump whisperer” on NBC’s Meet The Press. This appears to have remained steady despite Trump’s frequent praise for Vladimir Putin’s leadership, and the growing rift between the U.S. and the rest of NATO. Concerns have now arisen on whether the Sanctioning Russia Act will actually move forward without the “Trump whisperer” behind it.
Eulogising the senator, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that he was in “constant dialogue” with the Graham who had visited the country ten times since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Zelesky posted to X a day before the news broke of the senator’s sudden passing, saying “I’m grateful to Lindsey for recognizing our warriors. The stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the greater the chances that diplomacy will ultimately succeed.”
The Ukrainian president said that he and the senator had discussed Graham’s sanctions bill that is now sitting in the Senate.
Trump, unlike Graham, has been rocky in his support for Ukraine, oscillating between giving Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot missiles, and calling Putin a strong leader. He has also threatened to remove U.S. funding from NATO several times, and accused Zelensky of not being grateful for U.S. support in a combative Oval Office meeting in 2025.
However, despite concerns that Trump’s “America First” approach was never aligned with Graham’s interventionist viewpoint, Barbieri sees a silver lining in the president’s affinity for backing “winners.”
“President Trump’s calculus is possibly shifting as Ukraine gains the upper hand on the battlefield,” said Barbieri. Despite ongoing deadly strikes on Kyiv, Ukrainian forces have proven themselves to be capable at fighting back against the Russian incursion, even successfully dismantling Russian energy infrastructure through recent long-range strikes.
Graham received effusive eulogies from numerous state leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu and Zelensky. But an Iran state television broadcaster was less kind in their remembrances of the senator, who was also an unyielding supporter of Israel, saying: “I congratulate the great nation of Iran on Lindsey Graham, the warmongering and anti-Iranian U.S. senator, having gone to hell.”
