Supposingly, sometime between the afternoon and nightfall (either while he was there or a few hours after he left), Russian missiles and drones hit that facility. I couldn’t find anywhere on Russian media or Russian Defense Ministry releases anything about this particular facility, but Russian and Ukrainian telegrams are abuzz with how the facility was hit according to “their sources”. Usually the Russian Defense Ministry advertises the day after such strikes what exactly they hit (example from the 11th of July and the 14th of July about the previous nights). No matter the case, there’s definitely a focus on targeting weapons manufacturers in Kiev and elsewhere, so it would make sense that Skyfall’s facility (the one Graham visited) would also be targeted, as it is a very high-profile one.
It takes about 8 hours to go from Kiev to Washington DC by private jet (fastest jets can do a bit less than 1000 km/h and air distance between Kiev and Washington is a bit more than 8000 km). So for Graham to arrive in Washington by… let’s say 20:30 in the evening, he needed to leave Kiev at 11:30 Washington time. Kiev is 8 hours ahead of Washington, so 11:30 Washington time is 19:30 Kiev time. So it’s reasonable to assume that Graham left Kiev sometime between noon-early evening, so he could arrive in time in Washington to die. Which is not such an unreasonable timeline as some people suggest, depending on what time the strike occurred.
So why would everyone cover this up including the Russians? Let’s look at the possibilities:
There’s no cover up and Graham died from an aortal tear in his Washington house, after a long journey, which might have ended with a Russian bombardment on his way to the airport. The facility in question wasn’t targeted or hit, which is why it doesn’t get named in Russian defense ministry releases.
A US senator being killed by a Russian missile strike, even as collateral damage, would be grounds for WW3 for various reasons (even a rational US would probably feel they have no other choice but to counterstrike the Russians to save face after such a humiliation becomes public knowledge). So both Russians and Americans have agreed to keep silent about this so as not to let the nukes fly and end the world.
The Russians knew where Graham was and intentionally targeted him or didn’t care to postpone the strike. After all the deaths and damages caused in Russia by NATO and CIA-assisted drone strikes, it wouldn’t be an unreasonable answer/warning. In this war, Russians have often followed a pattern where Ukraine, Europe, UK or USA escalates in some egregious way, and then a few weeks later, Russia takes revenge quietly and without fanfare. They then informed the US that they were willing to silence what happened, if the US wished it so.
Graham died as a result of Ukrainian AA debris falling at his location (or Ukrainians are at fault for some other reason), and the US can’t afford for something like that to get known, as it could kill the mood for supporting Ukraine. Russians agreed to keep quiet to avoid a potential WW3.
Something else happened. There are other conspiracy theories claiming that Graham was assassinated by some other actor. The two main suspects in this theory is Iran (for obvious reasons) and Israel (as a warning to Trump to not abandon them, and/or Graham was privately having second thoughts about continuing the conflict with Iran). I put no stock in this. If it was Iran, Iran would be celebrating by now, or the US would be proclaiming they are coming after Iran. Israel could have literally killed anybody else besides their most staunch supporter to warn Trump (e.g. JD Vance, who seems to actually be lobbying to stop the war in Iran). Also, it doesn’t seem likely to me that Graham would have qualms about supporting Israel’s genocides under any circumstances.
Interesting, thanks for doing such a detailed breakdown on it. When you put it that way, I can see why there’d be a desire to cover it up (if it was him dying to a Russia attack in Ukraine) to avoid open escalation. With it being such a proxy war. But I can also see how if the timeline allows for it as you say, then maybe he really did get back uninjured and die at home. From what I could find on aortic tear/dissection, he’d be in the age range where it could have been building up unseen as a problem for a while.
Like this is what one source says on it:
Aortic dissection happens because there’s a slow breakdown of the cells in the walls of your aorta. The breakdown has likely been going on silently for many years before the weakened area of the aortic wall finally gives way. This results in a tear, which leads to the aortic dissection.
So if it was a cover-up, they were certainly careful to choose something as the cause that tracks as believable, while also being subtle enough in how it can occur that (from the sound of it) it wouldn’t necessarily be something you’d notice as a problem coming in a medical record.
For the conspiracy angle of it, that same article does also say:
Traumatic injury to your chest like a high-speed car crash or serious fall from a height of more than 20 feet.
(among factors that can increase risk of aortic tear)
So it’s possible that he got injured in Ukraine and it triggered an aortic tear, but you’d think if he was injured there, he’d be kept there rather than shuttled back to Washington. But I spose it could be that he technically did die of an aortic tear while in Ukraine, after getting injured by some attack. And the cover-up is that he died at home.
I don’t know what the exact specifics are, as I don’t seem to be finding definitive evidence for this and I’ve been looking at it all day. Best I could find is that on the morning of the 11th of July he arrived in Kiev and met with Zelensky. He made some statements, and then later at noon he visited a drone production facility in Kiev and he was being shown different drone models. There’s photos and articles of him visiting there.
Supposingly, sometime between the afternoon and nightfall (either while he was there or a few hours after he left), Russian missiles and drones hit that facility. I couldn’t find anywhere on Russian media or Russian Defense Ministry releases anything about this particular facility, but Russian and Ukrainian telegrams are abuzz with how the facility was hit according to “their sources”. Usually the Russian Defense Ministry advertises the day after such strikes what exactly they hit (example from the 11th of July and the 14th of July about the previous nights). No matter the case, there’s definitely a focus on targeting weapons manufacturers in Kiev and elsewhere, so it would make sense that Skyfall’s facility (the one Graham visited) would also be targeted, as it is a very high-profile one.
The official line is that at 20:27 at night local time, the ambulance went to Graham’s house in Washington and confirmed his death.. Before his death was officially announced, people playing around with police scanners listened to the emergency call. This would indicate that the report that Graham died of an aortal tear is factual, unless it is part of a cover-up.
It takes about 8 hours to go from Kiev to Washington DC by private jet (fastest jets can do a bit less than 1000 km/h and air distance between Kiev and Washington is a bit more than 8000 km). So for Graham to arrive in Washington by… let’s say 20:30 in the evening, he needed to leave Kiev at 11:30 Washington time. Kiev is 8 hours ahead of Washington, so 11:30 Washington time is 19:30 Kiev time. So it’s reasonable to assume that Graham left Kiev sometime between noon-early evening, so he could arrive in time in Washington to die. Which is not such an unreasonable timeline as some people suggest, depending on what time the strike occurred.
Russian strikes usually occur late at night when most people are asleep and not inside targeted buildings working, but that’s not always the case. According to various Telegrams, the supposed strike happened sometime between afternoon-night. So it’s quite possible that Graham was there when the facility was being hit. From media releases, we know Kiev was definitely being hit between 16:00 and 21:00 and it was a particularly intense one (no time in this article, but look at the photos), but we don’t get many specifics. And this timeframe would definitely put Graham either at the facility, or on his way to the airport during the Russian strikes.
So why would everyone cover this up including the Russians? Let’s look at the possibilities:
There’s no cover up and Graham died from an aortal tear in his Washington house, after a long journey, which might have ended with a Russian bombardment on his way to the airport. The facility in question wasn’t targeted or hit, which is why it doesn’t get named in Russian defense ministry releases.
A US senator being killed by a Russian missile strike, even as collateral damage, would be grounds for WW3 for various reasons (even a rational US would probably feel they have no other choice but to counterstrike the Russians to save face after such a humiliation becomes public knowledge). So both Russians and Americans have agreed to keep silent about this so as not to let the nukes fly and end the world.
The Russians knew where Graham was and intentionally targeted him or didn’t care to postpone the strike. After all the deaths and damages caused in Russia by NATO and CIA-assisted drone strikes, it wouldn’t be an unreasonable answer/warning. In this war, Russians have often followed a pattern where Ukraine, Europe, UK or USA escalates in some egregious way, and then a few weeks later, Russia takes revenge quietly and without fanfare. They then informed the US that they were willing to silence what happened, if the US wished it so.
Graham died as a result of Ukrainian AA debris falling at his location (or Ukrainians are at fault for some other reason), and the US can’t afford for something like that to get known, as it could kill the mood for supporting Ukraine. Russians agreed to keep quiet to avoid a potential WW3.
Something else happened. There are other conspiracy theories claiming that Graham was assassinated by some other actor. The two main suspects in this theory is Iran (for obvious reasons) and Israel (as a warning to Trump to not abandon them, and/or Graham was privately having second thoughts about continuing the conflict with Iran). I put no stock in this. If it was Iran, Iran would be celebrating by now, or the US would be proclaiming they are coming after Iran. Israel could have literally killed anybody else besides their most staunch supporter to warn Trump (e.g. JD Vance, who seems to actually be lobbying to stop the war in Iran). Also, it doesn’t seem likely to me that Graham would have qualms about supporting Israel’s genocides under any circumstances.
Interesting, thanks for doing such a detailed breakdown on it. When you put it that way, I can see why there’d be a desire to cover it up (if it was him dying to a Russia attack in Ukraine) to avoid open escalation. With it being such a proxy war. But I can also see how if the timeline allows for it as you say, then maybe he really did get back uninjured and die at home. From what I could find on aortic tear/dissection, he’d be in the age range where it could have been building up unseen as a problem for a while.
Like this is what one source says on it:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16743-aortic-dissection
So if it was a cover-up, they were certainly careful to choose something as the cause that tracks as believable, while also being subtle enough in how it can occur that (from the sound of it) it wouldn’t necessarily be something you’d notice as a problem coming in a medical record.
For the conspiracy angle of it, that same article does also say:
(among factors that can increase risk of aortic tear)
So it’s possible that he got injured in Ukraine and it triggered an aortic tear, but you’d think if he was injured there, he’d be kept there rather than shuttled back to Washington. But I spose it could be that he technically did die of an aortic tear while in Ukraine, after getting injured by some attack. And the cover-up is that he died at home.
The theorists say that he flew to Poland then took a train to Ukraine. Don’t know how credible that is.
That would make his departure time much earlier then, which would put him even more surely in the strike window.
Yeah but as I said I’m not sure if that is true. Can’t think of why an American plane might not be able to or want to land in Kiev.
Anyway what matters is that he’s dead.
True, but you are correct that that is the usual way politicians get in and out of Kiev.