Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Volodymyr Zelenskyy must change or resign to achieve peace with Russia's war on Ukraine, but Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said Sunday, "I don't agree."
"I'm not interested in calling on the resignation of other world leaders," Lankford told Sunday's NBC "Meet the Press." "I didn't like it when Chuck Schumer asked for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to be removed. I don't like it when other members of the Senate ask for Zelenskyy to be removed, either.
"Quite frankly, I think that would spiral Ukraine into chaos right now, trying to find who is the negotiator to bring an issue to peace."
While critics suggest President Donald Trump is turning his back on Zelenskyy and Ukraine to be more favorable to Russia, Lankford reminded NBC's Kristen Welker of Zelenskyy's behavior.
"If you remember, in that press conference in the Oval Office just on Friday, it began with President Trump saying that he is a friend of Zelenskyy," Lankford said. "He is interested. They've had good conversations. I think they understand each other and that, obviously, there are differences whereas Zelenskyy wants more in the way of some kind of security guarantees."
Putting Americans in the line of Russian fire in Ukraine is a deal-breaker for Trump, Lankford noted.
"The United States is not willing to be able to put troops on the ground – we're not willing to do that," Lankford continued. "But President Trump obviously met with Zelenskyy first. Everybody was talking about Trump is going to work with Putin. He had foreign ministers working with the Russians. He wanted to meet personally with Zelenskyy first.
"I think that's a very clear sign of where he is and where he stands on this. But he wants to get both sides of the table and get an end to the fighting and the death."