The US Senate has overwhelmingly approved a sweeping bipartisan package of sanctions targeting Russia and countries that continue to purchase its oil, gas, and other exports, advancing legislation that the late Sen. Lindsey Graham had spent more than a year negotiating with the White House.
The measure passed 86-11 on Friday, in the strongest congressional move yet during President Donald Trump’s second term to increase economic pressure on Moscow.
✍🏻Death of a warmonger: Lindsey Graham, hawkish US senator who plotted Iran’s fall, meets his end
By Yousef Ramazanihttps://t.co/RYUfS6htha
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) July 12, 2026
It now moves to the House of Representatives, where its passage could clear the way for the package to reach Trump’s desk.
The bill would authorize the president to impose tariffs on the world’s five largest purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas, including China and India, with exceptions for countries that import less than 15-percent of their natural gas from Russia and are taking steps to reduce those imports.
It would also impose sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, senior Russian political and military officials, Russian financial institutions, and Russian energy projects.
Another provision would expand US sanctions to “older and reflagged” oil tankers used by Russia to circumvent existing American restrictions and continue generating revenues from oil and other energy exports.
The broader aim of the package is to reduce the revenues available to the Russian government to target its capabilities amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
In 2014, Ukraine’s two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbass, announced independence, leading to a bloody conflict with Kiev. Ukraine, as well as the European Union and the US, claims that Russia has a hand in the conflict and have been using the allegation to arm Kiev and try to mount more pressure on Moscow.
The legislation also gives the US president authority to waive sanctions or restrictions if the White House certifies to Congress that doing so is in the national interest.
The legislation is closely associated with Graham, the South Carolina Republican who spent more than a year negotiating the package with the White House alongside Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
Graham and Blumenthal announced an agreement with the White House on July 10, shortly after Graham returned from a visit to Ukraine. Graham died suddenly the following day, likely from an aortic tear.
The Senate vote followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the Capitol, where he met privately with senators from both parties and watched from the gallery as lawmakers took the first procedural votes on the sanctions package last week.
He told senators that Ukraine was making gains against Russia, but continued to need US assistance. He later publicly thanked lawmakers for advancing the sanctions legislation, saying it would send a “big signal” to Ukraine and its allies about US support.
The legislation nevertheless faced opposition over the expanded tariff powers it would give Trump.
Democrats and some Republicans had expressed concern that giving the president broad authority to impose tariffs could contribute to higher prices for Americans.
The Senate rejected an amendment from Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the new tariff authority.
Paul argued that the tariffs could impose excessive costs on taxpayers, while Wyden and other Democrats objected to granting Trump additional authority to impose tariffs.
