Democrats won control of both chambers of the US Congress in the 3 November midterm elections, NBC News projected, and will take over when the new Congress meets in January. The result ends Trump's Republican majority but leaves him the veto. For Ukraine, voters removed some of Kyiv's critics and several of its staunchest Republican allies.

Hours before Americans voted, Russia fired 59 cruise missiles at Ukraine's power grid. For two years, a Republican Congress left Ukraine policy largely to the White House, which struck a diesel deal with Moscow that senators of both parties said clashes with a 2022 jaban. Congress writes the budget and sanctions laws and can investigate the administration. That puts real levers over US help for Ukraine back in lawmakers' hands.

Texas and Kansas elect Democratic senators for the first time in decades

As of publication, Democrats hold 54 Senate seats to the Republicans' 43, with races in Alaska, Mississippi, and Nebraska still uncalled. They flipped seven, including Texas and Kansas. Kansas last sent a Democrat to the Senate in 1932, Le Monde noted. In the House, NBC News has called 231 races for Democrats and 144 for Republicans, and expects about 258 to 177 once counting ends.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is poised to become Speaker when Democrats take control in January, NPR reported, ending Mike Johnson's speakership. Johnson kept the Ukraine Support Act, introduced in April 2025, off the House floor for more than a year. Lawmakers finally forced a vote with a discharge petition, and the bill passed in June with $8 billion in military loans.

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Trump answers with a "VETO" cap

Overnight, Trump posted a red cap reading "VETO" on Truth Social. Days earlier, he laid out the plan on the New York Post's Pod Force One podcast: “They'll be sending stuff up. You veto it. And eventually, after a month or two of getting all vetoed—they're just wasting time—they come over, and you make a deal,” Newsweek reported.

Majorities of 51 senators and 218 representatives let Democrats set the agenda, chair committees, and pass bills. They are not enough to beat a veto, which takes two-thirds of the members voting in each chamber to override, the Congressional Research Service says. With every seat filled and voting, that is 290 House votes and 67 in the Senate, so Democrats would still need about 32 House Republicans and 13 senators. Most Senate bills also need 60 votes to get past a filibuster.

Ukraine's critics and allies both lost seats

Ukrainian-born Victoria Spartz, who urged Ukraine to cede territory, lost Indiana's 5th District to Democrat J.D. Ford, Mirror Indy reported. Hardline Republican Scott Perry also lost. Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who backs closer dialogue with Moscow, narrowly kept her Florida seat. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported her win, noting she met Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev and hosted Russian Duma deputies.

Ukraine's Republican friends fell too. Brian Fitzpatrick, a co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, lost to Bob Harvie. Mike Lawler conceded. Both were among 18 Republicans who voted for the Ukraine Support Act. Senator Susan Collins lost Maine. In South Carolina, Annie Andrews beat Darline Graham, appointed after her brother Lindsey, author of a major Russia sanctions bill, died in July.

Moscow's window with Trump narrows, and Musk's money backed losers

Before the vote, Trump waived sanctions on Russian officials and banks and pursued deals with Moscow such as the diesel one. Richard Fontaine of the Center for a New American Security said the Kremlin was racing the calendar: “I think they see an opportunity here, one that may be relatively fleeting because the midterms are not too far away,” he told NPR.

Elon Musk, who backed Trump against Zelenskyy, spent at least $445.6 million on Republicans, Newsweek found. More than $200 million went to Texas, where his candidate lost.

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What the new Congress can push on Ukraine

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America named oversight of Trump's Russia sanctions waiver and diesel deal, more security aid, and extended protected status for Ukrainian refugees as its priorities, RFE/RL reported. Two senior Republican Senate aides told the outlet that pressure for Russia sanctions could grow.

Seven US senators from both parties said the Trump administration's decision to authorize Russian diesel imports conflicts with a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports and accused it of failing to consult Congress, in a statement on 11 October.

The dispute comes as the war with Iran drives up US fuel prices, which US President Donald Trump has blamed on Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries. Trump says Russian supplies will help bring prices down, while lawmakers warn that purchases could provide Moscow with revenue to continue its war against Ukraine.

The senators—Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, and John Curtis, and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal, and Ron Wyden—called on the administration to reverse course, saying the US should not provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with “a financial lifeline.”

What the 2022 law requires before the ban can end

The law, signed on 8 April 2022, allows the president to end the import ban only after submitting a certification to Congress. The certification must find that Russia has agreed to pull out its forces and stop the fighting on terms Ukraine's free and independent government accepts, no longer poses an immediate threat of attack to any NATO member, and recognizes Ukrainians' right to pick their own government.

The law also requires consultation with four congressional committees and a report at least 45 days before certification. The termination takes effect 90 days after certification unless a joint resolution of disapproval is enacted into law during that period. The senators allege the administration failed to meet the consultation and reporting requirements. Their statement does not establish whether a certification has been submitted.

Treasury’s license cites sanctions rules, not the 2022 law

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License No. 135 on 9 October, authorizing certain transactions involving Russian-origin diesel that would otherwise be restricted under US sanctions regulations. It runs until 7 April 2027 and cites sanctions regulations, not the 2022 import-ban law.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the deal on Fox News on 11 October, saying the administration would proceed under existing legal authority. He said lawmakers who argued that either the earlier law or the current Lindsey Graham sanctions law prohibited the deal were wrong, and argued the agreement would lower prices, Reuters reported.

How much diesel Trump says Russia will supply

Trump said on Truth Social that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to US and global markets, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons after that. He said Russia would deliver another 3 million tons “within a short period of time,” depending on the condition of its diesel refineries. The promised volumes have not been independently verified.

Russia partially lifted its diesel export ban on 10 October, allowing 500,000 tons onto the global market at this stage, the Russian government said, according to state news agency TASS.

A House bill to block Russian oil purchases

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick plans to introduce the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act to block Russian oil purchases and use a discharge petition to force a House vote, Axios reported. The procedure can force consideration of a bill if 218 House members sign. Republican Rep. Don Bacon said he would support the bill and called Trump's decision a serious mistake, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

Barrasso defends the deal. Zelenskyy calls it an investment in war

On CBS's Face the Nation on 11 October, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, called the deal “another point of leverage” for Trump to use against Putin. Asked whether the decision violated US law, Barrasso said the president was balancing competing priorities and had to make tough decisions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on 9 October:

“Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged.”

Trump also expects Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries under his proposed energy ceasefire, a White House official told Axios. Zelenskyy said Kyiv would halt such strikes if Moscow did the same.