By Daphne Psaledakis and Olena Harmash
WASHINGTON/KYIV, July 10 (Reuters) – Four U.S. senators said on Friday that they had reached agreement with the Trump administration to move forward with updated legislation on Russia sanctions.
“We are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement with the Trump Administration to move our updated Russia sanctions legislation forward. We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect to roll out the legislation very soon,” Senators Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham, Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker said in a statement.
“As Russia intensifies its slaughter of civilians, it is imperative that the legislative and executive branches work together to create tools to exact a heavy price on those who buy Russian oil and natural gas, fueling the Putin war machine,” the statement said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Graham, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday, said the agreement meant the legislation could move forward, giving Trump fresh tools to help end the war, which is now in its fifth year.
“We’ve reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support. It means it’s going to become law,” he told reporters, wrapping up his 10th visit to Kyiv.
The legislation, which Graham has been working on with fellow Republicans and Democrats for months, would impose sanctions on countries doing business with Russia, including buyers of its energy exports, over Moscow’s failure to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The timing could be difficult, given renewed pressure on oil prices amid fresh military strikes on Iran. Washington last month allowed a license permitting countries to purchase Russian seaborne oil to expire that had been intended to help vulnerable countries deal with the energy crisis.
Zelenskiy hailed Graham’s support in a post on X, underscoring the importance of ratcheting up pressure on Moscow.
“The stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the greater the chances that diplomacy will ultimately succeed. And right now, it is important that our long-range sanctions pressure on Russia be reinforced through new sanctions steps by our partners,” he said.
Trump met Zelenskiy earlier this week in Ankara. The tone of the meeting was a sharp departure from his past harsh criticism of Zelenskiy, which has included Trump calling him “ungrateful.” During the meeting, Trump said the U.S. would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors, a move long sought by Kyiv.
Trump said on Wednesday that the two had developed a “very good” relationship and both Moscow and Kyiv wanted to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto, Daphne Psaledakis and Andrea Shalal in Washington and Olena Harmash in Kyiv; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Alistair Bell)
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