US President Donald Trump will support the Russia sanctions bill Lindsey Graham spent two years trying to pass. A White House official told CNN on Monday that the president backs the bipartisan package, days after Graham's sudden death.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune froze it to give Trump room to negotiate an end to the war, and the White House opposed it, arguing it would undercut diplomacy. Trump repeatedly panned the legislation and pushed for discretion to impose sanctions himself rather than be told to do so by statute.

Trump answers on bill himself 

Asked directly by CNN's Kaitlan Collins whether he would sign it, Trump said: "Yeah, we're talking about it."

Graham announced the breakthrough on 10 July. He and Blumenthal said they had reached an agreement with the administration after extended negotiations. He died the next day, at 71, having just returned from Kyiv, where he met Zelenskyy on 10 July. 

Thune says it was what Graham cared about most at end

Thune said the White House had been working closely with Graham on the measure and that he was hopeful it would pass.

"It'll take Democrats and Republicans here in the Senate to do that, but I'm hopeful we can make it happen," Thune said.

In Graham's last days, the sanctions package was "the thing that he cared the most about in terms of an accomplishment, and it would certainly be an incredible legacy for him."

Blumenthal, who traveled to Kyiv with Graham repeatedly since July 2022, said he planned to speak with Thune about timing.

"It should be seen as a fitting tribute to Sen. Graham to do it quickly in his memory," Blumenthal said. "It's exactly what we were talking about when I last spoke to him over the weekend."

The bill now needs a new lead Republican sponsor. Finding one is on Blumenthal's agenda with Thune.

Leverage is higher now than when bill was written

The sanctions target the countries buying Russian energy. China and India together take roughly 85% of Russian crude exports.

They would land on a Russian oil sector that Ukraine has already broken open. Ukraine's General Staff reported on 4 July that Ukrainian strikes have idled 42.74% of Russia's oil refining capacity, resulting in $13.5 billion in industry losses since August 2025.

A law that taxes buyers arriving while the refineries burn is a different instrument from the same law would have been a year ago.

Zelenskyy said last week that there is now no Russian oil refinery that Ukrainian weapons cannot reach.

US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Ukraine's most consistent Senate ally, died on 11 July after a short and sudden illness, according to a statement on Graham's official X account. He was 71. 

His last foreign visit was to Kyiv on 10 July, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the US-Ukraine cooperation on Ukrainian drone production. Graham said it would be a "huge mistake" for the US not to develop cooperation with Ukraine in this area.

Graham unveiled the tariff legislation in January 2026 alongside President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, describing it as a tool that would allow the president to impose tariffs ranging from 0 to 500 percent on any nation buying Russian crude.

The bill previously secured commitment from 72 senators. Sanctions were among the issues Graham discussed with Zelenskyy on 10 July, at a moment when Ukrainian strikes have taken over 40 percent of Russian oil refining capacity offline. Passage would give the sanctions maximum leverage.

Graham built his record in Ukraine over more than a decade. He was one of the few US senators who insisted on sanctions against Russia after Russia's 2008 war on Georgia. That initiative did not gain wide support, according to the BBC. 

After Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, Graham publicly diverged from the Obama administration's Ukraine policy.

"The Obama Administration would not provide the Ukrainian government the weapons it needed to continue the fight. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration and our NATO allies sold Ukraine out. Putin is winning, we are losing," Graham said.

Graham built his Ukraine record over multiple Kyiv visits

Graham has made multiple visits to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale war in 2022. In July 2022, he and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal made their first wartime visit to Kyiv, visiting bombed Borodianka and Bucha.

Anton Herashchenko, who accompanied the visit as adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, remembered "tears in the eyes of Lindsey and Richard when they looked at photos of victims of Russian killers."

"Lindsey clearly understood that the interests of the US are the maximum weakening of Putin. Therefore, he used all his influence so that Ukraine received Patriot, F-16, ATACMS, and much more powerful American weapons," Herashchenko wrote.

Graham returned to Kyiv with Blumenthal on 30 May 2025 to promote the tariff bill and reaffirm bipartisan support for Ukraine.

Graham's role during the Trump-Zelenskyy tensions of 2025 was complicated. After the 28 February Oval Office confrontation between Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance, Graham called for Zelenskyy's resignation. Zelenskyy rejected the demand.

But by November 2025, as Trump-brokered peace talks intensified, Graham warned that any Ukrainian surrender to Putin would "haunt us all."

He continued to advocate for Ukraine within the Trump team, even during the coldest moments of the Trump-Zelenskyy relationship.

Graham was Washington's fiercest anti-Putin voice in Republican politics. His death leaves the 500% tariff bill without its principal Senate architect at the moment his announcement suggested it might finally pass.

The EU will introduce the "toughest sanctions... imposed (on Russia) in the last three years" in coordination with U.S. senators, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a television interview on July 7.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is no longer advancing on the front and is now limited to shelling residential areas with drones and missiles. This is leading to numerous casualties among the civilian population. This must stop," Barrot said.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on June 29 that U.S. President Donald Trump was ready for the Senate to vote on a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia. The Republican senator has repeatedly called for implementing additional sanctions against Moscow.

Barrot noted the EU is planning to impose the strongest sanctions against Russia that the bloc has introduced since 2022.

"This (war) cannot continue; it must stop. To achieve this, in coordination with American senators, Europe is preparing to introduce, based on French proposals, the toughest sanctions we have imposed in the last three years," he said.

"They will directly deplete the resources that allow Vladimir Putin to continue his war," Barrot added.

In the U.S., senators have been working on a sanctions bill, with Graham saying voting on a bill is expected to begin following the end of the July congressional break.

Graham, earlier on July 7, said he expects "the Senate will move the bipartisan Russian sanctions bill that will allow tariffs and sanctions to be placed on countries who prop up Putin’s war machine and do not help Ukraine."

The bill led by Graham has been in the works for several months as the White House has failed attempts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

"Ukraine has said yes to ceasefires and to any and all meeting requests while Putin continues to defy peace efforts. It is now time to put more tools in President Trump’s toolbox in order to end the war," he said.

Russia has relied on its partners, including Belarus, China, and Iran, for trade and to bypass Western sanctions meant to inhibit Moscow's ability to continue its war against Ukraine.

Ukraine war latest: Russian airports cancel nearly 300 flights amid drone attacks on Russia

Key developments on July 7: * Russian airports cancel nearly 300 flights amid drone attacks on Russia * BRICS summit statement condemns attacks on Russian railways, avoids urging Russia to cease war efforts in Ukraine * Ukrainian drone strike hits major oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, HUR source claims * Ukraine confirms drone strike on Russian chemical plant near Moscow * Russia strikes conscription offices in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine says Several Russian airports have

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

After holding a discussion with U.S. President Donald Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham said on June 29 that the U.S. president was ready for the Senate to vote on a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia.

Voting on the bill is expected to begin following the end of the July congressional break, Graham said.

"For the first time yesterday the president told me... he says, 'it's time to move your bill'," Graham said in an interview with ABC News, stressing that it would be Trump's purview as to whether the bill would ultimately be signed into law.

When asked if Graham expected Trump to sign the bill, the senator responded: "Yes, I think we're in good shape... But he has a waiver. It's up to him how to impose it."

Graham said he held the talk with Trump during a round of golf on June 28. No specific timeline was provided as to when the bill can be expected to be moved, although Congress is set to reconvene on July 9.

Signed by 84 co-sponsors, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have been working on a revised version of their bill that would impose secondary sanctions on Russian trading partners, while shielding Ukraine’s allies from penalties and making technical adjustments.

"So what does this bill do? If you're buying products from Russia and you're not helping Ukraine, then there's a 500 percent tariff on your products coming into the United States. India and China buy 70 percent of Putin's oil. They keep his war machine going," Graham explained.

Despite pressure, Trump has thus far refused to impose additional sanction against on his own accord. Amid discussion around the Senate bill, Trump has reportedly asked Graham to to soften his proposed sanctions, having previously postponed a vote on the bipartisan measure.

Amid the slow process of moving the proposed bill, Graham described the move as a "big breakthrough."

Ukraine has repeatedly urged the United States to impose additional sanctions on Russia as Moscow continues increase the frequency and magnitude of its attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Graham's comments come just hours after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto claimed that Washington lifted sanctions that hindered the expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, where Russia's state-owned energy company Rosatom is to build two new reactors.

Hungarian FM says US lifted Russian sanctions that hindered expansion of Paks Nuclear Power Plant

“Construction of the major pieces of equipment for the Paks nuclear plant is proceeding in Russia and France,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, as cited by Bloomberg.

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk