Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., quickly rebuked Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy for balking at President Donald Trump's minerals deal – sticking to a demand for security guarantees – but Graham issued a warning on the subsequent pause of Ukraine aid.
"As long as the fighting is going on, if we pull the plug on Ukraine, it would be worse than Afghanistan," Graham said in a televised interview Sunday, pointing back to former President Joe Biden's failed unconditional 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that left 13 U.S. service members dead.
"Until we have a ceasefire, I would give Ukraine what they need in terms of intelligence and weapons to defend themselves."
Trump had told Zelenskyy in the Feb. 28 Oval Office spat that Ukraine needed to be willing to agree to a ceasefire before a long-term settlement of Russia's war on it could be made.
But Zelenskyy wanted to include U.S. security guarantees in the previously agreed upon minerals deal with the Trump administration, a balk that ultimately led to a verbal sparring with Vice President JD Vance and Trump.
Zelenskyy was kicked out of the White House and Trump had pulled the deal, along with pausing Ukraine military funding, weapons aid, and intelligence sharing.
After the blowup on the Oval Office, Graham quickly and forcefully came out to rebuke Zelenskyy's balking at the minerals deal, even calling for him to resign or send someone willing to work with Trump.
Trump has since also pressed Russia on stopping its ramped up attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure, a part of what could have been included in a ceasefire deal with Ukraine.
"In terms of Russia, I'll be introducing sanctions on their banking sector and their energy sector next week, urging them to get to the table," Graham added in the televised interview. "If they don't engage in ceasefire and peace talks with the administration, we should sanction the hell out of them."
Graham's criticism of Zelenskyy rattled politics, because he had long been a critic of Biden's slow-walking aid, weapons, and jets support for Ukraine, once saying "give them the damn jets."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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