Russia issues arrest warrant for US Senator over edited video row

An arrest warrant has been issued by Russia for US Senator Lindsey Graham after a manipulated video appeared to show him celebrating the deaths of Russian soldiers. The edited footage, which combined two separate instances, was shared by the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the two met in Kyiv last week. The video showed Senator Graham praising aid to Kyiv as “the best money we’ve ever spent” and mentioning Russian troop casualties. The senior Republican senator has responded that he will wear the warrant as a “Badge of Honour.”

“To know that my commitment to Ukraine has drawn the ire of Putin’s regime brings me immense joy,” Senator Graham wrote on Twitter. “I will continue to stand with and for Ukraine’s freedom until every Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian territory.” He also challenged his Russian “friends” to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Following criticism from Moscow last week, Ukraine released the full, unedited video on social media. The footage revealed that Senator Graham’s comments were made during two separate parts of the meeting, which were edited by President Zelensky’s office to appear consecutive. In the first clip, he acknowledged the success of US military aid to Ukraine in resisting Russia’s advance. In a later, unrelated clip, he noted that “the Russians are dying.”

However, Russia’s foreign ministry accused Kyiv of attempting to protect Senator Graham from criticism and urged him to publicly clarify if his words had been misrepresented. Russia’s interior ministry, which placed Senator Graham on the wanted list, did not specify the crimes he had allegedly committed.

Senator Graham is known as one of the Republican Party’s most hawkish members on foreign policy issues. The South Carolina lawmaker has been a strong advocate for aid to Ukraine and has previously accused Moscow of committing “crimes against humanity” during the conflict. Last year, he sparked outrage in Moscow by calling for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter. Nonetheless, the 67-year-old senator is also a close ally of former US President Donald Trump, whose own stance on aid to Ukraine has been ambiguous.