Zelenskyy Arrives for Graham's Funeral. Will the Senate Finish His Bill?

Ten Days Until the Senate Leaves

On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Washington for the funeral of Lindsey Graham, one of Ukraine's most consistent allies in the Senate, and the author of the sanctions bill that now bears his name.

Lindsey Graham died on July 11. The day before, he was in Kyiv, meeting Zelenskyy, and advancing the Senate sanctions bill that now carries his name. That sequence is worth sitting with. One of the last working acts of his life was spent on Ukraine.

This week, Zelenskyy arrives in the capital for the funeral, scheduled to meet the President while he is there. He comes at an unusual moment. By most accounts in Washington, the administration's posture on the war is shifting, with the White House appearing more supportive of Kyiv's position than at any point since the start of the term. The two leaders met cordially at this month's NATO summit in Ankara. Momentum, for once, is running in Ukraine's direction.

Here is the problem with momentum. It is not the same as law.

The bill Graham spent his final months building, S. 5025, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, is not stalled for lack of support. It has more than 60 bipartisan cosponsors, a filibuster-proof number. The White House backed it in writing. Iran sanctions, which the administration wanted added, have been folded in, and Senate leaders are reported to be nearing an agreement to bring it to the floor.

What it Does not Have is Time.

The Senate leaves Washington for a month-long recess in the first week of August. That is roughly ten days from now, ten days that are already crowded with nominations and other business. A bill that misses that window does not simply wait for September. It re-enters a schedule that has already swallowed earlier versions of this exact legislation, more than once, in exactly this way.

So this week sets up a contrast that should be uncomfortable for anyone watching.

On Tuesday, the Senate will honor Lindsey Graham with eulogies. Colleagues will call him a champion of Ukraine, a hawk on Russia, a man who spent years dragging this sanctions idea through a chamber that kept finding reasons not to move. All of it will be true.

And then the same chamber will have about a week to decide whether any of it meant anything.

A eulogy honors a person. Passing his bill honors the work. Those are not the same act, and only one of them changes what happens on the front line, where every uninterrupted month of Russian oil revenue buys another month of strikes on Ukrainian cities, and where the leverage to insist on the return of Ukraine's deported children exists only for as long as there is pressure to trade.

Zelenskyy is flying to Washington to mark the loss of the man who wrote this bill. The most fitting response the Senate could offer is not a moment of silence, it is a vote.

Ten days. The text is finished. The votes are counted. What remains is the will to bring it to the floor before the room empties for August.

A Funeral Honors the Man. A Vote Honors the Work.

Source: The Guardian — "Netanyahu and Zelenskyy to arrive in Washington for Lindsey Graham funeral," 27 July 2026