A bipartisan pair of senators traveled to Ukraine on Friday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, using the visit to champion a broadly supported push in Congress to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia.
Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, surveyed damaged neighborhoods in Kyiv and buildings leveled amid the escalating violence, including the most intense bombardment since the war began, then made the case that there was an urgent need for the United States to act.
“The size and scope of the destruction is a different order of magnitude,” Mr. Blumenthal said in an interview. “The Russians are using ballistic missiles, using drones to carry much higher and more destructive munitions.”
The visit came just days before another round of talks is set to begin in Istanbul, and as a growing number of Republicans in Washington are calling for a tougher stance against Russia, diverging sharply from President Trump’s so far hands-off approach.
The duo urged swift action from the United States and allies to cut off the Kremlin’s ability to sustain its war machine. Their legislation, which is supported by 82 senators split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, seeks to target the key lifeline of their war economy: energy exports.
“Russia is in a very perilous state already economically, because 40 percent of its economy is devoted to war production or compensation for soldiers,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Its only real source of revenue is oil and gas and other similar energy products, which 70 percent is sold to India and China together.”
The two said they would continue on to France and Germany, where they planned to push allies to lower the oil price cap, which would require Group of 7 nations to only allow the transport of Russian oil sold at or below an agreed upon price — another move targeting the war economy.
Mr. Graham, a vocal critic of Mr. Putin, was direct in ascribing blame to Moscow for the stalled peace process.
“I don’t believe Putin is a willing partner,” he said, speaking to reporters in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. “Russia delays. They haven’t produced anything in terms of their demands for peace, and I don’t think they’re ever going to because they don’t want peace. They want more war.”
By contrast, he praised Ukraine’s continued engagement, saying they have, in his view, “done everything that President Trump and others have asked.”
Despite a notable increase in the heated rhetoric toward Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump has not yet made clear his position on the sanctions bill. Mr. Graham signaled that the president might soon come around.
“President Trump said that this next two-week period will be outcome determinative,” he said. “I see nothing about the meeting on Monday in Istanbul to give me any hope at all that Russia’s interested in peace. So when this two-week period is over, I think it’ll be pretty clear to everybody: Russia’s playing a game at the expense of the world, not just the United States.”
Mr. Graham also said that Republicans in the House were preparing to move forward with companion legislation to impose sanctions, a signal that there is growing consensus in the G.O.P. around punishing Russia and countries that are backing Moscow, even as the party has rejected calls for additional military funding for Ukraine.
“The game is about to change,” Mr. Graham said. “Enough of talking; it’s now time to act.”
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
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