4 minWorld
Zelenskyy Thanks Late Sen. Graham Hours After Trump Waives Russia Sanctions Law
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a five-word tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham hours after President Donald Trump paused the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for the South Carolina Republican, a timing widely read as a pointed message to the White House.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a brief tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on Saturday that many observers interpreted as a pointed message to President Donald Trump, coming hours after the White House paused the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for the South Carolina Republican.
«Thank you for everything, Lindsey!» Zelenskyy wrote on X in both English and Ukrainian, attaching a photograph of himself shaking hands with Graham, who is giving a thumbs-up in the image. The Ukrainian leader did not mention Trump directly, but the timing of the post drew immediate attention from foreign policy analysts and journalists who noted it landed shortly after the president moved to waive financial penalties on buyers of Russian oil that Congress had enacted.
Margaret Brennan, moderator of CBS's «Face on the Nation,» wrote that Trump had waived the financial punishments on buyers of Russian oil «late last night,» adding that passing the bipartisan bill was meant to honor Graham's legacy as a longtime Russia hawk who had pushed for those sanctions. She also noted that Zelenskyy said Saturday «it is harder now without Senator Lindsey Graham in Ukraine's corner.» Graham, a South Carolina Republican and one of the Senate's most vocal critics of Moscow, died in July, and his sister Darline Graham was appointed to finish his term.
Caitlin Doornbos, a foreign policy and war reporter who founded the outlet The Correspondent, also pointed to the timing, writing: «Wow. President Zelensky posts this hours after Trump announced waivers of the new Lindsey Graham sanctions law on Russia.» Christopher Miller, the Financial Times' chief Ukraine correspondent, shared the post with a one-word reaction: «Wow.»
Others read the five-word message as a deliberate shot at the White House. The pro-Ukraine account Vatnik Soup wrote that «Zelenskyy is basically just trolling Trump at this point, and I'm all for it.» Finnish geopolitical analyst Joni Askola called it «a clear message from Zelensky to Trump,» while Nicolas Tenzer, a senior French civil servant and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote simply: «This is the message.» John O'Brennan, a professor of European politics, described it as «master trolling.» Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov brought up Graham's sister, writing: «Wonder what Darline would say about who she stands with.»
The post comes during a particularly strained stretch in relations between Washington and Kyiv. Trump said last week that Ukraine needs «a new president,» blamed Zelenskyy's strikes on Russian refineries for high U.S. diesel prices, and on Thursday said he finds the Ukrainian leader «more difficult to deal with than Putin.» The sanctions law that Trump paused had been championed by Graham as a way to choke off funding for Russia's war machine, and its suspension — paired with Zelenskyy's tribute — underscored how quickly the political ground has shifted for Kyiv in Washington.
Zelenskyy's message stopped short of any explicit criticism of the U.S. president, leaving the interpretation to observers. But the contrast between the warm words for Graham and the timing relative to Trump's waiver gave the five-word post an outsized political weight, turning a simple remembrance into a widely discussed signal about the state of U.S.-Ukraine relations.
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