Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spent July 28, 2026 in Washington trying to keep the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025 alive in the Senate. The bill lost its central broker when Senator Lindsey Graham died in mid-July, and its main critics are now Democrats rather than Ukraine-skeptical Republicans.
Zelensky arrived in Washington on July 28, 2026 with one item on his agenda: keeping a Russia sanctions package alive on Capitol Hill. He met President Trump in the morning and was scheduled to address all 100 U.S. senators at 6 p.m. the same day. The visit underscored how fragile the legislative momentum behind Ukraine's economic pressure campaign has become.
What Senate Bill 1241 would do
The package at the center of the push is the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, introduced as Senate Bill 1241. It would give the U.S. president authority to impose new sanctions on Russia and on any country that keeps buying Russian energy exports, specifically if Russia refuses to engage in peace negotiations or violates existing agreements.
Momentum built on July 10, 2026, when a bipartisan group of senators traveled to Kyiv and reached an agreement on the framework with both Zelensky and the Trump administration. Graham, one of the most vocal congressional advocates for Ukraine policy over the past several years, played a central role in brokering that deal during the visit. He died in mid-July 2026, shortly after securing the agreement, and his absence now looms over the effort.
The opposition comes from Democrats
Resistance to S.1241 comes primarily from Democrats rather than from the Republicans who have periodically questioned the scale of U.S. involvement in Ukraine. Their concerns center on two provisions.
First, the tariff mechanisms embedded in the bill: sanctioning countries that purchase Russian energy could effectively function as a form of secondary tariff, creating complications for trade relationships Democrats have already been scrutinizing under the administration's broader tariff agenda. Second, opponents have flagged the scope of executive power the bill would authorize — giving any president wide discretion over who gets sanctioned and when is a structural concern that transcends Ukraine policy.
That leaves Zelensky's task on the Hill less about persuading Ukraine skeptics and more about addressing procedural and constitutional anxieties among senators who broadly support Ukraine but have reservations about the bill's architecture.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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