Senators push the Trump administration to act swiftly on Russian sanctions to help Ukraine

Nearly a month after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping Russian sanctions bill named after Lindsey Graham, bipartisan leadership in the Senate is urging the administration to act to help Ukraine WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a month after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping Russian sanctions bill named after Lindsey Graham into law, bipartisan leadership in the Senate is urging the administration to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fueling the war against Ukraine. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators said the most urgent priority for the U.S.

must be to tackle the “shadow fleet” of tankers that Moscow is using to transport oil and bypass America’s sanctions. They also pushed for a halt of Russia’s emerging satellite system that Ukraine has warned could prove devastating with real-time bombing attacks this winter. “Every day that passes without maximum economic pressure allows Moscow to sustain this military escalation,” wrote Sen.

Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The senators note that the bulk of the law’s provisions go into effect Oct.

18, the end of the administration’s 30-day review period. The Trump administration has remained mostly quiet since the passage of the bill with large bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate after Graham’s sudden death, with lawmakers urged ahead by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has been expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose birthday is Wednesday, to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute.

Congress backed Ukraine with the Russian sanctions package The sanctions package had been a year in the making but was suddenly rushed to passage after Graham, the long-serving South Carolina senator, died in July of a likely torn aorta after a whirlwind trip to a NATO summit in Turkey and a stopover in Kyiv. Senators had been negotiating a bipartisan bill that could win robust support but it was only when Graham received the nod of approval from Trump in the days around the senator’s overseas trip that it gained momentum. Zelenskyy had also been pushing the U.S.

to act, and he arrived in the Senate after a visit at the White House late in the evening before a key vote that advanced the package. The House gave final approval to the bill, sending it to Trump’s desk, but Democrats in both chambers warned that they doubte…