‘GOOD MEETING’:
Zelenskiy said Trump accepted the US would give Ukraine Patriot licenses; the Ukrainian president also met with US companies on possible coproduction
The US Senate on Tuesday advanced sweeping Russian energy sanctions legislation as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the Capitol, seeing the vote as a tribute to the bill’s author, the late US senator Lindsey Graham, on the day of his funeral. Graham was among Kyiv’s most influential and outspoken allies in the US Congress in its four-year-old war against Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The tally was 86 to 12 in favor on a procedural vote to advance the bill, which seeks to impose sanctions on Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives for a meeting with US senators in Washington on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump has said he would support the measure, after asking that sanctions on Iran be added, which they have been as the US war against Iran enters its sixth month. Although Democrats are broadly supportive of the sanctions, the tariff authority for Trump has raised concerns about potentially higher import costs. The concerns threaten the legislation’s prospects for passing the Senate, as well as the US House of Representatives when it resumes in September.
