{"id":22198,"date":"2026-07-28T23:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/22198\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T23:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:26:08","slug":"netanyahu-and-zelensky-speak-in-person-for-first-time-in-3-years-at-graham-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/22198\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu and Zelensky speak in person for first time in 3 years at Graham funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke and shook hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s funeral service on Tuesday, after both leaders were hosted separately at the White House by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The conversation looked to be quite serious but cordial, and Netanyahu and Zelensky smiled during their handshake.<\/p>\n

They had not spoken since January 2025 and the last time they met in person was September 2023. The two explored arranging a formal meeting in Washington on Tuesday, but ultimately did not move ahead with the idea.<\/p>\n

Haaretz reported that Netanyahu\u2019s office rebuffed a request to meet, with a Ukrainian source telling the Hebrew daily that the Prime Minister\u2019s Office proposed the sit-down but never responded after Zelensky agreed. There was no immediate comment from either side on the report.<\/p>\n

Also Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha and invited him to visit Israel.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe discussed the challenges facing our nations, including the threat posed by Iran,\u201d said Sa\u2019ar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael and Ukraine are friends, and I look forward to further deepening our cooperation, including through the establishment of new education centers in Ukrainian hospitals,\u201d wrote Sa\u2019ar on X.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tForeign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar alongside his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 23, 2025. (Shlomi Amsalem\/GPO)<\/p>\n

Sybiha said that he accepted Sa\u2019ar\u2019s invitation, adding that he updated his Israeli counterpart \u201cabout Russia\u2019s escalation of terror against civilian vessels and freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and their implications for global food security, including for Israel as an importer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian foreign minister said he also told Sa\u2019ar about Ukraine\u2019s preparations to commemorate the upcoming 85th anniversary of the Babyn Yar, during which the Nazis and their collaborators murdered more than 33,000 Jews over two days in September 1941.<\/p>\n

Ties between Jerusalem and Kyiv have been delicate since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, with\u00a0Zelensky earlier this year saying<\/a> that Netanyahu has sought to maintain a neutral stance on the conflict despite Russia providing critical intelligence to Iran in the war with the US and Israel.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has sought to purchase Israel\u2019s Iron Dome missile defense system, which Netanyahu ruled that out to avoid antagonizing Russia, while also resisting Ukrainian offers<\/a> to help Israel counter the threat of drone attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Israeli officials routinely defended this stance when Russia controlled the skies over Syria before the fall of Bashar Assad\u2019s regime in 2024. Since then, some Israeli officials have been willing to break more publicly with Moscow, though Netanyahu has avoided doing so.<\/p>\n

Zelensky huddles with Trump<\/p>\n

The meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office, which like Netanyahu\u2019s closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the NATO summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where the US president announced that his administration will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defense systems \u2014 a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks.<\/p>\n

Taken together, those meetings underscore how much Trump, once a major skeptic of continued assistance to Kyiv, has warmed to Zelensky as Ukraine continues to withstand the Russian barrage more than four years after Moscow\u2019s invasion in 2022. The Ukrainian leader, whose relationship with Trump in his second term was marked by a raucous White House visit in which he was denigrated for being ungracious, has worked to court the Republican administration while relying on both likely and unlikely allies in Trump\u2019s orbit to exert their influence with the president.<\/p>\n

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has consumed much of the Trump administration\u2019s focus this year, has also become gradually entwined with Ukraine, with Ukraine firing on at least one Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea over the weekend while Zelensky asserts that Russia has been offering satellite imagery of US bases in the Persian Gulf to Iran.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) arrives at the White House on July 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images\/AFP)<\/p>\n

In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelensky thanked Trump for the \u201cgood meeting\u201d and the Republican administration\u2019s efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,\u201d said Zelensky, who also noted that he offered condolences to Trump for the death of Graham, a close ally. \u201cWe also spoke about diplomacy \u2014 it\u2019s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both the Zelensky meeting and the sit-down with Netanyahu<\/a> were \u201cpositive and productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelensky wants to bolster Ukraine\u2019s defense production<\/p>\n

Later during his whirlwind, one-day visit to Washington, Zelensky posted that he met with officials from Lockheed Martin for further cooperation in both defense production and exchanging of technologies, saying, \u201cUkraine has a lot to share with those who help us protect lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute, said expanding production capacity for Patriot interceptors is not only vital for Ukraine, but also for the US and its Gulf allies, particularly as supply runs low during the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine has shown that its defense industry is capable, innovative and creative,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cI have no doubt that when they\u2019re granted the license, they will be able to produce these missiles which will hopefully mean there will be more available for the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump welcomed Zelensky to the White House as the Ukrainian leader traveled to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other exports.<\/p>\n

In a Fox News Channel interview Tuesday, Trump recalled Graham\u2019s hawkishness and said the Republican South Carolina senator\u2019s support for Ukraine never wavered. Trump said Graham had suggested it was time to make a deal with Iran but had no similar suggestion for the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine, he\u2019s very militant about,\u201d Trump said on \u201cFox & Friends.\u201d \u201cI mean, Lindsey liked war, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. answers questions from the media near an exhibition of damaged Russian vehicles in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 10, 2026. (AP Photo\/Efrem Lukatsky)<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s embrace of Zelensky comes as a far-right activist with the US president\u2019s ear had a recent, widely publicized change of heart on Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Laura Loomer, known primarily for her incendiary social media posts and her influence with Trump, has been traveling through Ukraine, witnessing Moscow\u2019s barrage firsthand and interviewing Zelensky while admitting she was \u201cbamboozled by Russian propaganda.\u201d Loomer said she spoke to Trump after she met with Zelensky in Ukraine last week and she expects to meet with the US president once she returns from her trip.<\/p>\n

Ukraine highlights ties between Iran and Russia<\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting, Zelensky also warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of US bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran. The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a \u201cclear correlation\u201d between Russia\u2019s images and subsequent Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n

Iran is a key ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and has helped Moscow build up its drone expertise.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, Trump downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran, even as he said he would raise the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,\u201d Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan. \u201cAnd if they have, it has been very un-impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Caspian Sea attack, the foreign ministers of Iran and Ukraine spoke about the matter, according to statements posted on social media Tuesday. Sybiha called the conversation \u201cfrank\u201d and said Ukraine\u2019s focus is \u201csolely at defending our country from Russian aggression and never intended to target civilian vessels or people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA photograph taken on December 27, 2025, shows an Iranian-designed Shahed 136 (Geranium-2) drone used by the Russian Army flying over Kyiv during a Russian drone and missile attack, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Sergei Supinsky\/AFP)<\/p>\n

Ukraine says the ship was carrying weapons to Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to counter Russian aggression, which is the root cause of all incidents, and it is Russia who bears full responsibility for all provocations and casualties,\u201d Sybiha said, adding that he told Araghchi \u201cto refrain from any escalatory steps, as well as to end any support for Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur position remains unchanged: Europe and the Middle East deserve stability, security, and peace,\u201d said Sybiha, subtly stressing the danger Iran poses not only to its own region, but also well beyond.<\/p>\n

Iran has said at least one sailor was killed in the attack. For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is also not seeking escalation but \u201cmade clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable\u201d and \u201cthere must be restitution for losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro-Ukraine backers pushing to advance sanctions bill<\/p>\n

Zelensky has a busy itinerary during his latest visit to Washington. Besides his White House meeting, Zelensky will head to the Capitol to meet with senators on Tuesday evening after Graham\u2019s funeral at Washington National Cathedral, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Republican leadership is hoping to advance Graham\u2019s sanctions legislation this week, although the Senate is juggling several other priorities before lawmakers leave Washington for their August recess.<\/p>\n

The bill has dozens of backers from both major political parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world\u2019s top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.<\/p>\n

The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin; senior Russian political and military leaders; and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.<\/p>\n

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke and shook hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s funeral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6654,43,7023,2873,6311,35],"class_list":["post-22198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-israel-ukraine-relations","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-us-ukraine-relations","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}