Following a weekend trip to Kyiv, Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham seemed to indicate that he has seen some of the details relating to Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive.
The Republican senator told Politico’s NatSec Daily this week that the Kremlin is in for a “rude awakening” once Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s promised counteroffensive begins.
Graham admitted that he had been given a “deep dive” briefing on the plans from the Ukrainian president and military officials, and suggested that the plans could come into effect within just a matter of days.
“In the coming days, you’re going to see a pretty impressive display of power by the Ukrainians,” Graham said.
President Zelensky also said on Monday that he has finalized plans to launch the counteroffensive, following months of speculation about what the plans might entail.
The news marks a remarkable turnaround from the government in Kyiv, after reports previously indicated that Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials were deliberately refraining from providing exact details about their plans to the United States.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, also told CNN in recent days that Ukraine is preparing to increase its shelling on Russian logistics and supply routes, potentially indicating the nature of the upcoming counteroffensive.
“There is already some sort of work underway to increase the intensity of the shelling of Russia’s logistics support to reduce their combat capabilities in the near future, to loosen up their defenses,” Podolyak said.
Podolyak also promised that the counteroffensive would go beyond attacking Russian supply routes, describing the plans for increased shelling as a “precursor to the counterattack.”
Russia Issues Arrest Warrant Against Graham
After President Zelenskyy’s office released an edited video showing the Republican senator describing U.S. aid to Ukraine as the “best money we’ve ever spent” and claiming that the Russians are “dying,” Russia’s interior ministry reportedly issued an arrest warrant against him.
Graham, who is already one of more than 200 American members of Congress banned from entering Russia, responded to the news on Twitter, stating that he wears the arrest warrant with pride.
“I will wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin’s corrupt and immoral government as a Badge of Honor,” Graham wrote.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued also issued a statement on the matter, saying that it was “hard to imagine a greater shame for the country than having such senators.”
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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
