US Senate advances Russia sanctions as Zelensky visits

The US Senate advanced sweeping Russian energy sanctions legislation as Ukrainian President ⁠Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Capitol, seeing the vote as a tribute to the bill's author, the late Senator Lindsey Graham, on the day of his funeral.

Mr Graham was among Kyiv's most influential and outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-old war against Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The tally was 86 to 12 in favour on a procedural vote to advance the bill, which seeks to impose sanctions on Russian officials and authorise stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

Republican President Donald Trump has said he would support the measure, after asking that sanctions on Iran be added, which they have been as the US war against Iran enters its sixth month.

Though Democrats are broadly supportive of the sanctions, the tariff authority for Mr Trump has raised concerns about potentially higher import costs.

Those concerns threaten the legislation's prospects for passing the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives when it resumes in September.

If it becomes law, the bill would allow Mr Trump to ‌impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major ⁠consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.

Some Democrats have said they would oppose the bill, which must survive additional procedural votes in the Senate before final passage.

After that, the House of Representatives, which is not in session again until September, would consider it.

"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.

However, the bill's backers said the tariffs were narrow enough that they would do their intended job of reducing Russian energy revenue that funds its war on Ukraine without negative consequences.

They said the agreement is the best opportunity for the US Congress to pass legislation to support Ukraine and the ⁠strong bipartisan Senate vote would provide momentum for it to pass 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 travelled to Ukraine repeatedly with Mr Graham, told a news conference after ⁠the vote.

Zelensky visit

The late senator ‌ announced shortly before his sudden death on 11 July that he and Mr Trump agreed finally to move forward with the legislation, more than a year after it was introduced.

Mr Zelensky, who came to Washington for Mr Graham's funeral and to meet Mr Trump, said the sanctions legislation would hit Russia's ability to finance the war, while sending a powerful signal about US support for the Ukrainian people.

"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 heading into the Senate chamber to watch the vote on what is now called the 'Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026'.

In a statement, a bipartisan ⁠group of senators supporting the bill said the legislation would stop foreign purchases of Russian oil and gas revenue from fueling Russian President Vladimir Putin's "war machine" as well as restrict "the Iranian regime's ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear programme'.

The senators included Republican Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham's sister, who was appointed to his South Carolina Senate seat on an interim basis and is running to be elected to the seat.

The senators said the legislation lets the president impose targeted tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russia's evasion of sanctions.

They said the bill limits these tariffs to the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that aid Russia’s energy sanctions evasion.

The measure includes a provision to prevent ‌a lapse in sanctions authority that restricts funding for Iranian energy and weapons.