Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a five-word tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on Saturday. Plenty of people took it as a jab at President Donald Trump.
“Thank you for everything, Lindsey!” Zelenskyy wrote on X, in English and Ukrainian. He attached a photo of himself shaking hands with Graham, who is giving a thumbs-up.
Zelenskyy didn’t mention Trump. But the timing stood out. The post went up hours after Trump put on hold the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for Graham, a South Carolina Republican and longtime Russia hawk who died in July.
“Late last night, President Trump waived the financial punishments on buyers of Russian oil that Congress had enacted to stop funding Putin’s war machine,” wrote Margaret Brennan, moderator of CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Passing that bipartisan bill was meant to honor Lindsey Graham’s legacy, as he had pushed for those sanctions.”
She added that Zelenskyy said Saturday “it is harder now without Senator Lindsey Graham in Ukraine’s corner.”
Caitlin Doornbos, a foreign policy and war reporter who founded the outlet The Correspondent, also pointed to the timing.
“Wow. President Zelensky posts this hours after Trump announced waivers of the new Lindsey Graham sanctions law on Russia,” she wrote.
Christopher Miller, the Financial Times’ chief Ukraine correspondent, shared the post with a one-word reaction: “Wow.”
Others read it as a deliberate shot.
“Zelenskyy is basically just trolling Trump at this point, and I’m all for it,” wrote Vatnik Soup, a popular pro-Ukraine account.
Finnish geopolitical analyst Joni Askola called it “a clear message from Zelensky to Trump.” Nicolas Tenzer, a senior French civil servant and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote: “This is the message.”
John O’Brennan, a professor of European politics, called it “master trolling.”
Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov brought up Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to finish his term.
“Wonder what Darline would say about who she stands with,” Tarlov wrote.
The post comes during a rough stretch between the two leaders. Trump said last week that Ukraine needs “a new president.” He also blamed Zelenskyy’s strikes on Russian refineries for high U.S. diesel prices, and Thursday he said he finds Zelenskyy “more difficult to deal with than Putin.”