Senior US lawmakers condemned the Trump administration’s decision to extend “temporary” sanctions relief for Russian oil, warning that the move gives Moscow more money to fund its war against Ukraine. The joint statement was issued by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, after Treasury General License 134B expired on May 16, 2026. The senators said the administration had again extended relief for Russian oil.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “The Trump Administration is delivering another dangerous and indefensible gift to Vladimir Putin by extending sanctions relief for Russian oil yet again,” Shaheen and Warren said. They argued that every additional dollar earned by the Kremlin through the license helps Putin finance Russia’s war against Ukraine and “kill innocent Ukrainians.” The senators also rejected the administration’s economic justification for the move. “With gas prices continuing to rise and inflation spiking, the Administration has not shown that this relief is lowering costs for American families or stabilizing global energy markets,” the statement said. Shaheen and Warren said the administration’s stated concern for energy-vulnerable countries would be more credible if it had used policy tools to limit the prices Russia could charge those countries. Instead, they argued, the policy had helped Moscow charge more for its oil cargoes by removing the risk of sanctions.