US Senate Delivers Overwhelming 86-12 Bipartisan Backing for Russia Sanctions as Zelensky Watches

The US Senate overwhelmingly advanced sweeping sanctions legislation targeting Russia’s energy revenues Tuesday, voting 86–12 to move forward with a bill designed to hit one of the Kremlin’s most important sources of funding for its war against Ukraine.

The decisive bipartisan vote cleared the legislation’s first procedural hurdle and gave new momentum to a sanctions package championed for more than a year by the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington as the vote took place, following talks with YPresident Donald Trump at the White House, Graham’s funeral and a meeting with senators on Capitol Hill.

“Sanctions pressure on Russia is very important,” Zelensky told reporters ahead of the vote, saying the measure would weaken Moscow’s ability to finance its invasion while sending a strong message of support to Ukraine.

“It’s also a big signal to Europe, big signal to Ukraine, big support of our people, so I’m very thankful,” he said.

Targeting the money behind Putin’s war

The legislation goes directly after one of Russia’s greatest remaining advantages: the billions of dollars Moscow continues to earn from energy exports despite years of Western sanctions.

It would impose primary and secondary sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs and their families, banks and financial institutions, foreign actors supporting Moscow’s war effort and vessels belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet used to bypass restrictions on oil exports.

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The bill would also give Trump authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on goods from countries that remain among the largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas.

The revised measure focuses those tariffs on the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the five countries most heavily involved in helping Moscow evade energy sanctions.

That could place major buyers such as China and India under significantly greater pressure to reconsider purchases that continue providing the Kremlin with the money it needs to finance missile production, recruit troops and sustain its war machine.

“This bill is the one that will pass. This bill is the one that the president will sign,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who developed the legislation alongside Graham, said after the vote.

86–12 sends Moscow a clear message

An 86–12 margin demonstrated that tougher action against Russia retains overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate despite months of political debate over Ukraine policy.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer framed the vote as a direct warning to the Kremlin.

“With this vote, we are going to show Putin he can’t bully Ukraine,” Schumer said.

For Moscow, the result undercuts hopes that political divisions in Washington could weaken US pressure or allow Russia to simply wait out Western support for Kyiv.

The legislation had spent months stalled despite attracting more than 60 co-sponsors, largely because of negotiations over tariff powers and the White House’s role in implementing them.

Graham announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that an agreement with Trump had finally cleared the way for the bill to move forward.

The revised version narrowed an earlier proposal that threatened tariffs of up to 500% against countries buying Russian energy, replacing it with a more targeted framework capped at 100%.

That compromise appears to have unlocked the broad coalition needed to move the legislation through the Senate.

Zelensky takes Ukraine’s case directly to Congress

Before senators entered the chamber, Zelensky met lawmakers behind closed doors and made the case for stronger pressure on Russia, more air-defense support and continued US backing for Ukraine.

All 100 senators had been invited.

The message from Kyiv was straightforward: Russia has not abandoned its war aims, and diplomacy will have little chance of succeeding unless Moscow is confronted with greater military and economic costs.

Earlier in the day, Zelensky met Trump in the Oval Office, where the two discussed licenses allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptors domestically and ways to revive stalled negotiations with Russia.

Zelensky called the talks a “good meeting,” while the White House described them as “positive and productive.”

Taken together, the White House meeting and the Senate vote pointed toward a stronger US approach: improve Ukraine’s defenses, tighten pressure on Russia’s war economy and use that leverage to strengthen Kyiv’s position in any future negotiations.

Graham’s final campaign gains momentum

The bill now bears Graham’s name – the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.

Graham had been one of Ukraine’s most forceful advocates in Congress and spent his final months arguing that Russia’s ability to wage war depended heavily on foreign buyers continuing to finance Moscow through energy purchases.

Just one day before his death, Graham was in Kyiv meeting Zelensky on what became his 10th visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Zelensky traveled to Washington partly to attend Graham’s funeral and described him as “a true friend of Ukraine.”

Six Republican and Democratic senators who reached the final agreement on the sanctions package said there was “no greater way to honor Senator Graham’s legacy” than advancing the measure.

The revised legislation also extends sanctions authority aimed at restricting financing for Iran’s energy and weapons sectors, provisions added at Trump’s request.

Momentum now shifts toward passage

The bill still has additional Senate steps before a final passage vote, but the 86–12 result gives supporters a commanding bipartisan foundation.

The vote also increases pressure on the House of Representatives to take up the measure when lawmakers return to Washington in September.

After months of uncertainty over Washington’s direction, the Senate has now shown that a powerful bipartisan coalition is prepared to impose far greater costs on Moscow and on the countries continuing to bankroll its war.