{"id":1276,"date":"2026-07-12T21:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2026-07-12T21:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:39:12","slug":"the-honorable-gentleman-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1276","title":{"rendered":"The Honorable Gentleman for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ukraine had few, if any, friends<\/span> in Washington more devoted than Senator Lindsey Graham, who visited Kyiv at the end of last week. His sudden death over the weekend left the Ukrainian leadership wondering who might fill the role he played: someone who had the rare ability to talk tough with Volodymyr Zelensky, to reason with Donald Trump, and to show both presidents how their interests could align.<\/p>\n

Read more What Lindsey Graham Wanted<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHis soft Carolina accent delivering tough decisions will be missed,\u201d Serhii Kyslytsia, the deputy head of Zelensky\u2019s administration, told me today. He saw Graham twice in the week before his death, once at the NATO summit in Ankara, and again in Kyiv. \u201cI hope there are people up to his level to pick up and bring to conclusion his ideas and initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s most recent visit with Zelensky marked at least the tenth trip he had made to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022. The state railway company usually provided a special train for his delegation, and the senator would get a private cabin with two narrow beds for the overnight journey. During the first of these trips, in July 2022, Graham went to the town of Bucha, a suburb of the capital that Russian forces occupied for about a month that spring. In the town\u2019s churchyard, he saw evidence of a mass grave for civilians killed during the occupation, and he later described it as \u201challowed ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his stated reasons for supporting Ukraine had more to do with U.S. interests than any appeals to human sympathy or international justice. As he told Zelensky during another visit, in May 2023, U.S. aid to Ukraine during the war had been \u201cthe best money we\u2019ve ever spent.\u201d He argued that the U.S. should not miss its chance to weaken Russia, a strategic adversary, without risking the lives of American troops. \u201cWe\u2019ve reduced the combat power of the Russian army by 50 percent. Not one of us has died in that endeavor,\u201d he told 60 Minutes in an interview filmed on Kyiv\u2019s main square around that time. \u201cThis is a great deal for America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments infuriated the regime in Moscow, which responded by issuing a warrant for Graham\u2019s arrest. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine a greater shame for the country than having such senators,\u201d the Kremlin\u2019s chief spokespersoman, Dmitry Peskov, said at the time.Some of Graham\u2019s critics in the U.S. accused him of cynicism for admitting, in essence, that the U.S. wanted not to help Ukraine but to exploit it for the sake of geopolitical advantage. But Zelensky never found fault with Graham\u2019s logic. On the contrary, the Ukrainian leader has used similar arguments to persuade his European allies to increase their support for his country.<\/p>\n

Graham sponsored a bill last year<\/span> that would impose severe economic sanctions on Russia. At a party in honor of his 70th birthday last summer, he told me that the bill would pass within days and that President Trump had agreed to sign it. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get this done for Ukraine,\u201d Graham said at the event, which was attended by Stephen Miller, a senior aide to the president. But the legislation never came up for a vote, and Graham struggled to convince the White House of its necessity. Only last week, during his visit to Kyiv, Graham and several of his colleagues in the Senate announced that a revised version of the sanctions bill had won the approval of the Trump administration. They promised to move the legislation forward \u201cvery soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump Loses Lindsey Graham<\/a><\/p>\n

If passed, it would serve as a crowning example of Graham\u2019s commitment to helping Zelensky, who did not always heed the senator\u2019s counsel or warn him of Ukraine\u2019s military plans. In August 2024, the armed forces of Ukraine launched an incursion across the border into the region of Kursk, the first foreign invasion of Russian territory since the Second World War. Graham visited Kyiv as the battle in Kursk unfolded, and he seemed impressed with the Ukrainian attempt to turn the tables in the war. \u201cWell, you\u2019re in Russia. Glad you didn\u2019t tell us in advance,\u201d Graham said to Zelensky with a smile, according to the then\u2013foreign minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

Zelensky chuckled in response, Kuleba told me. They then spent an hour discussing U.S. support for Ukraine and how it would change if Trump won the presidential race that November. After Trump\u2019s victory, Graham worked behind the scenes to ensure that the incoming administration would not pull the plug on Ukraine or hand it over to the Russians. As part of that effort, he came up with a plan for the U.S. to take the bulk of any profits from the extraction of rare-earth minerals and other natural resources in Ukraine. Graham hoped such an arrangement would appeal to Trump\u2019s instincts as a businessman and keep U.S. support flowing.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a planned signing ceremony for the minerals deal, in February 2025, Graham coached Zelensky on how to behave toward Trump, urging him to be respectful and not \u201ctake the bait.\u201d The senator then watched in dismay as the meeting devolved into a shouting match. \u201cComplete and utter disaster,\u201d he told reporters afterward on the White House lawn, his voice shaking with emotion. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, the U.S. cut off all aid to Ukraine for about 10 days, and Graham insisted that Ukraine needed to hold presidential elections. Zelensky took that advice as a call for his ouster. In an interview last year, Zelensky told me that the push for a presidential ballot in the middle of the war had been a Russian position that U.S. officials \u201cpicked up\u201d to get rid of him.<\/p>\n

Despite these ups and downs in their relationship, Graham was back in Zelensky\u2019s office at the end of last week. According to the official readout of their meeting, they discussed the sanctions package against Russia, which will remain, from the Ukrainian perspective, Graham\u2019s most important piece of unfinished business. Kyslytsia, the senior official in Kyiv, expressed hope that Graham\u2019s colleagues in the Senate would \u201ccelebrate his life\u201d by passing the bill. \u201cThat would be the right way to pay him tribute,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

Read more The Quintessential Politician of This Era<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Lindsey Graham made the last foreign trip of his life to a nation he never gave up on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-security"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Honorable Gentleman for Ukraine - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1276\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Honorable Gentleman for Ukraine - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senator Lindsey Graham made the last foreign trip of his life to a nation he never gave up on.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1276\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-12T21:39:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"The Honorable Gentleman for Ukraine\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-12T21:39:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276\"},\"wordCount\":1093,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/6e44a54100d6c19229ff674728e25d3d.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"National Security\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1276\",\"name\":\"The Honorable Gentleman for Ukraine - 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