One of the loudest names in American politics has fallen silent. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and one of Donald Trump's closest allies, died at 71 after a short and sudden illness. Emergency services responded at his home in Washington after a report of cardiac arrest. Just a day earlier he had returned from Kyiv, where he met Volodymyr Zelensky.

Graham was no minor figure. He served in the Senate for 24 years, first elected in 2002 and re-elected four times. He was among the loudest advocates for American support of Ukraine and one of the sharpest critics of Iran. Ironically, he departed in the very week when both Ukraine and Iran are on the front pages - the two subjects he devoted the last years of his career to.

His relationship with Trump was a story in itself. He first criticized him fiercely, then became one of his most visible supporters - a path many American Republicans have walked. To some he was a principled foreign-policy hawk, to others an opportunist who changed his positions with the wind. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between.

For the Balkans, Graham was one of those American faces we saw on television whenever something big was being decided - Ukraine, the Middle East, NATO. His departure doesn't change policy overnight, but it leaves a gap in the camp that shaped American foreign policy for decades. And at a time when the world is burning on several fronts, every such departure reminds us how quickly the people we thought would be there forever can change.