US House passes sweeping Russia sanctions bill, sending it to Trump
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a wide-ranging sanctions package targeting Russian officials and key parts of the country’s economy, in a move aimed at cutting off the financial resources President Vladimir Putin needs to continue the war in Ukraine. The bill was approved by 262 votes to 159 and now goes to President Donald Trump to be signed into law.
The legislation, named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, was negotiated over more than a year. It is being seen as the most ambitious US effort to support Ukraine since Trump’s return to the White House, and comes after nearly two years of relative gridlock on the issue following a 2024 emergency aid package. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had pressed for the measure and made a direct appeal to senators shortly before they passed it last month.
The bill imposes sanctions on Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers used to keep Russian energy supplies moving. It also directs Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15 per cent of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports. “These countries have a choice to make about whether they will continue to sustain Putin’s aggression,” said Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas.
Supporters said the tariff provision was meant to deter China and India from buying Russian energy. Critics, however, said they feared Trump could use it against allies in the European Union and elsewhere, and warned that Americans would ultimately face higher prices. “This president has always said he loves tariffs,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, Democrat of New York. “And we know the history of what he’s done with reference to tariffs to our European allies, and our allies everywhere.”
Democrats were divided over the bill despite broad support within the party for helping Ukraine. Representative Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, told colleagues they could not control the president’s actions but could state clearly where they stood on the war. “If we fail to pass this bill, there will be cheers in the Kremlin and tears in Kyiv,” Hoyer said. But Representative Don Beyer, Democrat of Virginia, said backers of Ukraine would later regret supporting the measure. “Yes they will be able to say we stood with Ukraine’ in the immediate aftermath,” Beyer said. “But when Donald Trump hits our allies with new tariffs and waives sanctions on Russia, the propaganda victory for Putin will be lasting, and the damage will be embedded in US law.” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, opposing the bill, said Democrats would continue to support Ukrainians until victory was won, “but this bill does not provide a path to secure that.”
Congress has struggled to maintain the flow of US funding and munitions to Ukraine as Republican backing for spending billions more has weakened. During his campaign for the White House, Trump repeatedly criticised aid for Ukraine and said that, if elected, he would quickly end the war launched by Moscow’s invasion in February 2022. It took Graham about a year to bring Trump around to the sanctions package. Trump eventually backed it after it included his demand for a five-year extension of existing sanctions on Iran. Republicans speaking in the House before the vote were largely in favour of the package.
Representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, acknowledged Democratic concerns that tariffs could be used aggressively against smaller US allies, but said it was time to send a strong message to Moscow. “End this war, get out of Ukraine, focus on rebuilding your shattered international reputation and your destroyed economy,” he said. The Senate had passed the bill by 86 votes to 11 last month, but it then lost momentum in the House as Republican leaders focused on other priorities ahead of the midterm elections and several senior Democrats raised objections to the tariff provisions.
The House passed the bill on what is expected to be its final voting day before the November 3 elections. Ahead of the vote, Zelenskyy urged the House on social media to approve the measure, saying that in war it can sometimes be better to “make a not-so-perfect decision than to do nothing”. “And this is a very important historical moment for the United States. The bill must be passed, voted on, and supported,” Zelenskyy said on X. “Beyond that, strong decisions from the US Administration are important. Personal decisions by President Trump. I very much hope we will see that.” In sum, the bill marks a major new US sanctions push against Russia, but it has also exposed divisions in Washington over how far Trump’s tariff powers should go.
