By Matt Murphy BBC News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham (right) meet in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 26.
Russia issued an arrest warrant for US Senator Lindsey Graham (67, Republican) on the 29th. An edited video of Mr Graham was posted on social media in which he allegedly rejoiced over the death of a Russian soldier continuing to invade Ukraine.
Senator Graham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, on the 26th. The video is a combination of two different scenes shot at that time.Edited by the Office of the President of Ukraine and by Chief of Staff Andriy YermakPost to Twitterbottom.
Mr Graham said in the video that aid to Kyiv was “the best money we have ever spent” and that Russian soldiers were “dying” on the battlefield.
“I am immensely pleased to learn that my commitment to Ukraine has angered the (Russia’s Vladimir) Putin regime,” Graham said on Thursday.Tweet. “I will continue to support Ukraine’s freedom until all Russian soldiers are expelled from Ukrainian territory,” he said.
“And finally, I propose to my Russian ‘friends’ who want to arrest and bring me to justice for calling the Putin regime a gang of war criminals. will follow
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The Russian government last week criticized Graham’s remarks. “There is no greater shame for America than to have such a senator,” Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Ukraine posted the full, unedited video on social media on the 28th.
In the video, you can see Graham speaking on two occasions during the meeting.
in the first video,Graham said the US military aid to Ukraine had helped stem the advance of Russian forces, and he hailed it as “the best money we have ever spent.”
after that,Another video with no link, many recalled that at first they thought Ukraine could withstand the onslaught of Russian forces for only three days. And now “Russians are dying,” he said.
Russia’s foreign ministry accused the Ukrainian government of trying to shield Graham from criticism. It asked Graham to publicly state whether his remarks were being used out of context.
The Russian Interior Ministry, which named Graham, did not specify what crimes he was accused of committing.
But the Russian Federal Investigative Committee (Russian law enforcement equivalent to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation) announced last week that it had opened an investigation into “a US senator’s rhetoric about the murder of Russians”.
Graham is considered one of the Republican Party’s most hawkish congressmen on foreign affairs. He is an avid supporter of aid to Ukraine, and has once accused the Russian government of committing “crimes against humanity” in its invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, he angered the Russian government by calling for the assassination of Putin. On Twitter, he wrote that the only way to end the invasion was “somebody in Russia has to get this guy out”.
Graham, meanwhile, has close ties to former US President Donald Trump. Trump has not made clear statements about aid to Ukraine.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential election, has consistently said he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours if re-elected. However, he declined to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win.
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2023-05-30 03:03:31
