President Trump on Friday warned Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Mike Pompeo to be "very careful what they say," after we asked him about their efforts to stoke the Russia-Ukraine war.
"On Russia-Ukraine, you've been making progress towards a peace deal. I don't know if you know this, but Lindsay Graham and Mike Pompeo were there on the ground in Ukraine, seemingly doing the opposite - trying to provoke the Ukrainians to keep fighting. What do you think of that?" asked ZeroHedge's Liam Cosgrove, during a quick press interaction after arriving in New Jersey.
"People have to be very careful with what they say. They gotta be very careful with their mouth, because their mouth can get them into a lot of trouble," Trump replied.
Of note, Pompeo - Trump's former Secretary of State, former CIA director, and a massive war hawk, told a crowd in Odesa, Ukraine that it would be a "mistake of epic proportions" if the Trump administration were to recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
"I get the frustration … I’m not naive about what’s physically possible in this moment, but that doesn’t mean one should go and say, ‘and we are giving up for all time,' said Pompeo amid growing acceptance in Ukraine that it needs to enter into a ceasefire with Russia. Kiev, however, has been pushing for its allies to reject the recognition of occupied lands as sovereign Russian territory.
Of note, Russia occupies around 20% of Ukrainian territory since launching its invasion of the country in February 2022, and has held the Crimean Peninsula since annexing it in 2014, along with the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.
During the speech, Pompeo mentioned Sen. Lindsay Graham as a close ally and Ukraine supporter, who he says he's reached out to over Pompeo's 2018 'Crimea Declaration' which refuses to recognize the Kremlin's claims of sovereignty over seized territory as "the right thing to do."
The same week Pompeo made his comments, Graham held a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), where the three discussed "a U.S. legislative initiative to strengthen sanctions against Russia," among other things.
Graham and Blumenthal also insisted that Russian propaganda over their battlefield success has been spreading throughout the world, and Ukraine 'continues to stand strong in its fight against the aggressor,' according to a release from Zelenskyy's office.
Particular attention was paid to increasing pressure on Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy commended the bill introduced by Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal to impose new sanctions against Russia and called on the U.S. Senate to consider it. According to the Head of State, it is important to strengthen sanctions targeting the energy and banking sectors, as well as to lower the price cap on Russian oil to USD 30. -president.gov.ua
The trio also discussed strengthening Ukraine's air defense, and the possibility of using funds from frozen Russian assets, and the establishment of the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Inverstment Fund.