With Volodymyr Zelensky looking on from Capitol Hill, the US Senate pushed forward a sweeping Russian energy sanctions bill, turning the vote into a solemn tribute to its author, the late Senator Lindsey Graham, on the day Washington gathered for his funeral.
Mr Graham had been one of Kyiv’s loudest and most consequential champions in Congress during its four-year-old war against Russia, and the legislation reflects his long-running effort to squeeze Moscow economically over its invasion of Ukraine.
Senators voted 86 to 12 on a procedural motion to advance the measure, which would sanction Russian officials and authorise steep tariffs on China, India and other countries in an effort to curb their reliance on Russian oil and gas.
Republican President Donald Trump has said he would back the bill after requesting the addition of sanctions on Iran, which have now been included as the US war against Iran moves into its sixth month.
Those worries could complicate the bill’s path through the Senate and later through the House of Representatives, which is not expected to return until September.
Lindsey Graham stood among Kyiv’s most forceful allies in Washington
If enacted, the measure would give Mr Trump the power to impose tariffs as high as 100% on major buyers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some European Union countries, while also giving him discretion to remove them.
Some Democrats have warned they may vote against the legislation, which still faces further procedural hurdles in the Senate before it can reach final passage.
Only then would the House of Representatives take it up, with lawmakers not due back in session until September.
“This is not so much a sanctions bill as it is a massive backdoor authority for President Trump to impose more tariffs, including on our European allies, that hurt American families,” Representative Gregory Meeks said in a statement when the legislation was released this month.
Supporters of the bill countered that the tariff powers are sufficiently limited to achieve their central purpose: cutting into the Russian energy income that helps finance the war in Ukraine, without creating broader economic fallout.
They argued that the deal offers Congress its strongest opening to pass new Ukraine-related legislation, and that the lopsided bipartisan Senate vote could help propel the measure through the House, most likely in the autumn.
“This bill is the one that will pass. This bill is the one that the president will sign,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a bill co-sponsor who traveled to Ukraine repeatedly with Mr Graham, told a news conference after the vote.
Zelensky visit
Shortly before his sudden death on 11 July, the late senator announced that he and Mr Trump had finally agreed to move ahead with the legislation, more than a year after it was first introduced.
Mr Zelensky, who traveled to Washington for Mr Graham’s funeral and for talks with Mr Trump, said the sanctions package would strike at Russia’s capacity to bankroll the war while delivering a clear message of American backing for Ukrainians.
“It’s also a big signal to Europe, big signal to Ukraine, big support of our people, so I’m very thankful,” Mr Zelensky told reporters before entering the Senate chamber to observe the vote on the measure now titled the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.”
Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump in the Oval Office (Pic: Zelensky social media account)
In a statement, a bipartisan group of senators backing the bill said it would prevent foreign purchases of Russian oil and gas from feeding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war machine” and would also curb “the Iranian regime’s ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear program.”
Among the senators was Republican Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister, who was appointed on an interim basis to his South Carolina Senate seat and is seeking election to the post.
The senators said the legislation empowers the president to apply targeted tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy the bulk of Russian oil or gas and help Russia evade existing sanctions.
They said the measure confines those tariffs to the five biggest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that assist Russia’s energy sanctions evasion.
The bill also contains language designed to prevent a lapse in sanctions authority restricting funding for Iranian energy and weapons.
