On May 26, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who headed a US delegation's visit to Ukraine, was shown in a video clip shared purportedly by Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office. In it, Graham speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the footage, making the rounds on the Internet on Sunday and seized upon by the media, Senator Lindsey Graham appeared to say: "And the Russians are dying... it's the best money we've ever spent."
The video, the authenticity of which Sputnik cannot confirm, as well as whether it has been redacted, triggered an immediate storm of reaction online.
However, now, a follow-up release of Graham's reportedly complete remarks, cited by the UK media, appears to show there was no such link between the two phrases.
The meeting between Lindsey Graham and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky comes as Washington and its NATO allies have been waging a full-blown proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and weapons in the hands of the Kiev regime's forces have been used to shell and kill numerous innocent civilians.
As for Russia's response to the video featuring the American politician, the Russian Interior Ministry put Senator Graham on its wanted list over Russophobic remarks, according to the ministry's database. Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin was cited as instructing the relevant authorities to initiate a criminal investigation into the remarks ascribed to the American senator.
The developments come amid continuing controversial rhetoric coming from the Kiev authorities. Like in the case of Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence Vadym Skibitsky, who told a German daily that Putin was at the top of Kiev's list of targets.
"I have no doubts that the puppeteers in Washington and London are starting to question whether these people are sane. I hope that sanctions will be imposed against these so-called leaders," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had responded in a video comment posted on Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin's Telegram channel.
Russia's ambassador to the UK last week warned Western countries against committing more military support for the Kiev regime, saying this would be fraught with further dangerous escalation, as actions of NATO countries risk lengthening and triggering a "new dimension" in the conflict. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated earlier that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target of Russia.