On May 28, 2023, a video from a meeting between an American parliamentarian and the President of Ukraine caused a great stir. We checked to see if this Lindsey Graham quote is accurate.

According to media reports, on May 26, American Senator Lindsey Graham, during a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, literally said the following: “Russians are dying. We have never spent money so well before.” In many sources, the news was accompanied by a short video with the specified quote.

Graham's statement caused a wide resonance in Russian political circles. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov commented with his phrase “It is difficult to imagine a greater disgrace for the country than to have such senators.” Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova called Graham’s words “Nazi rhetoric,” and the State Duma deputy Dmitry Belik I saw in them a confession of Satanism. Ex-President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev called the American politician an “old fool”, and the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin instructed to initiate a criminal case against Lindsey Graham in connection with the words “about the financial participation of the United States in causing the death of Russian citizens.” After that Ministry of Internal Affairs Russia has put the senator on the wanted list.

Lindsey Graham was quoted by leading Russian media (TASS, RBC, "RIA Novosti"). It received particular distribution in Telegram - in the channels “Ax 18+" (2 million views at the time of writing), “The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""(1.7 million), Readovka (834,000) "Ax Live"(642,000), "Live broadcast"(619,000), "Before everyone else. Well almost"(502,000), "Operation Z: Military Correspondents of the Russian Spring"(497,000), "Ukraine now: news, war, Russia"(465,000), "Adam Delimkhanov» (395,000) and "All Seeing Eye Ukraine"(362,000).

In the evening On May 26, news appeared on the website of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration that Vladimir Zelensky had a meeting with US Senator Lindsey Graham, who visited the country for the third time since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Judging by the press release, much attention in the conversation was paid to the supply of American weapons to Ukraine and financial assistance.

On the same day, in the official channel of the Ukrainian president on Telegram appeared and a 76-second video report from the meeting. From the 30th second you can hear the following dialogue.

Zelensky: Now you are free (Now you are free).

Graham: Yes (Yes).

Zelensky: And we will be (And we will too).

Graham: And the Russians are dying. The best money we’ve ever spent (And the Russians are dying. Our best waste of money ever).

So, indeed, from the content of the video distributed by the administration of the Ukrainian president, one can decide that the senator from South Carolina spoke so strangely about the death of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. However, a change of plans in the middle of a sentence does not allow one to speak about this with confidence.

The international news agency Reuters contacted the Office of the President of Ukraine for clarification and published video report, giving a more complete picture of the conversation that took place in Kyiv. In the first part, Lindsey Graham can be heard saying, “Our best waste of money ever,” not in reference to the deaths of Russians, but in response to Vladimir Zelensky’s gratitude for providing $38 billion in military aid to Ukraine. And then, without editing, the senator reports that he came to visit on the 457th day of a war that Russia assumed would be over within three days. He said Ukrainians resisting the invasion reminded him of “the best of ourselves in America.”

Graham: There was a time in the USA when we were the same, ready to fight to the last man, be free or die.

Zelensky: Now you are free.

Graham: Yes.

Zelensky: And we will.

Graham: And the Russians are dying.

Zelensky: Yes. But they came to our territory. We are not fighting on their territory.

Thus, in fact, the words “The Russians are dying” and “We have never spent money so well” were uttered by Senator Lindsey Graham at different points in his conversation with Vladimir Zelensky and are in no way connected in meaning. Moreover, in the original video even the order of these statements is reversed. Scandalous interpretation denied and the senator himself, although in the Russian Foreign Ministry stated, that “it is no longer possible to wash away such words, even if they were uttered separately.” It should be noted that in this case, the root cause of the scandal was not the machinations of Russian propaganda, but an error or deliberate distortion of information on the part of the press service of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons