The United States Senate has voted to advance a sweeping sanctions package targeting Russia and Iran, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met US President Donald Trump at the White House on July 28.
Senators backed the procedural motion by 86 votes to 12, clearing the way for further debate on legislation renamed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.
It carries the name of the South Carolina Republican who died on July 11 aged 71, shortly after returning from Kyiv. Zelensky attended his funeral in Washington earlier the same day.
Eleven Democrats and one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, opposed the motion. Several further stages are needed before the measure can become law, including votes in the House of Representatives, which does not return until September.
The package would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs and their families, banks and financial institutions, and vessels in the so-called shadow fleet used to move oil around Western restrictions.
It would also let the President impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on goods from the five largest buyers of Russian crude oil or gas, and on the five countries most active in helping Moscow evade energy sanctions. That would place China and India under particular pressure.
Some Democrats have questioned the scale of the tariff powers handed to the White House, concerns that could yet slow the bill.
Zelensky, who watched the vote from the Senate chamber, said the measure mattered beyond Ukraine. “It’s also a big signal to Europe,” he told reporters.
At the White House earlier, he and Trump discussed licences for Patriot interceptor production, a request Kyiv has pressed for months. Trump agreed to grant such a licence at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8.
The Ukrainian leader said the diplomatic process with Moscow needed reviving, with teams arranging further contacts.
Trump gave no account of the talks for nine hours, then wrote on Truth Social that the meeting had gone “very well”.
He also received Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, their first face-to-face meeting since the two countries launched a joint campaign against Iran. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both meetings had been positive and productive.
Netanyahu, who dismissed reports of a rift with the White House, told Fox News the alliance was a “wall of granite”. He said both leaders were committed to preventing the Tehran government from acquiring nuclear weapons, by diplomatic means or otherwise.
Trump had struck a cooler note hours earlier, telling the broadcaster he did not need Netanyahu to brief him publicly on Iranian nuclear activity.
