US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Ukraine's most consistent Senate ally, died on 11 July after a short and sudden illness, according to a statement on Graham's official X account. He was 71.
His last foreign visit was to Kyiv on 10 July, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the US-Ukraine cooperation on Ukrainian drone production. Graham said it would be a "huge mistake" for the US not to develop cooperation with Ukraine in this area.
Graham unveiled the tariff legislation in January 2026 alongside President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, describing it as a tool that would allow the president to impose tariffs ranging from 0 to 500 percent on any nation buying Russian crude.
The bill previously secured commitment from 72 senators. Sanctions were among the issues Graham discussed with Zelenskyy on 10 July, at a moment when Ukrainian strikes have taken over 40 percent of Russian oil refining capacity offline. Passage would give the sanctions maximum leverage.
Graham built his record in Ukraine over more than a decade. He was one of the few US senators who insisted on sanctions against Russia after Russia's 2008 war on Georgia. That initiative did not gain wide support, according to the BBC.
After Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, Graham publicly diverged from the Obama administration's Ukraine policy.
"The Obama Administration would not provide the Ukrainian government the weapons it needed to continue the fight. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration and our NATO allies sold Ukraine out. Putin is winning, we are losing," Graham said.
Graham built his Ukraine record over multiple Kyiv visits
Graham has made multiple visits to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale war in 2022. In July 2022, he and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal made their first wartime visit to Kyiv, visiting bombed Borodianka and Bucha.
Anton Herashchenko, who accompanied the visit as adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, remembered "tears in the eyes of Lindsey and Richard when they looked at photos of victims of Russian killers."
"Lindsey clearly understood that the interests of the US are the maximum weakening of Putin. Therefore, he used all his influence so that Ukraine received Patriot, F-16, ATACMS, and much more powerful American weapons," Herashchenko wrote.
Graham returned to Kyiv with Blumenthal on 30 May 2025 to promote the tariff bill and reaffirm bipartisan support for Ukraine.
Graham's role during the Trump-Zelenskyy tensions of 2025 was complicated. After the 28 February Oval Office confrontation between Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance, Graham called for Zelenskyy's resignation. Zelenskyy rejected the demand.
But by November 2025, as Trump-brokered peace talks intensified, Graham warned that any Ukrainian surrender to Putin would "haunt us all."
He continued to advocate for Ukraine within the Trump team, even during the coldest moments of the Trump-Zelenskyy relationship.
Graham was Washington's fiercest anti-Putin voice in Republican politics. His death leaves the 500% tariff bill without its principal Senate architect at the moment his announcement suggested it might finally pass.
