WASHINGTON (AP) , Just hours after Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walked into the U.S. Capitol and found an audience that was unusually focused.
Half of the Senate turned out for the closed-door session. Lawmakers put down their phones and gave him their full attention. Together with members of the House, they listened as Zelenskyy took questions about Ukraine’s approach to its drawn-out conflict with Russia.
He outlined how Ukraine was pushing back against the Russian assault and carrying the fight to Moscow, but required American assistance , including Patriot interceptor missiles, licensing agreements, broader access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet, and, most pressingly before an upcoming Senate vote, a tough package of Russia sanctions designed to cut off President Vladimir Putin’s oil and gas revenue that was bankrolling the war.
“He said, ‘We need this legislation,'” recalled Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in an interview. “Both the troops and the Ukrainian people need this for morale.”
“You could feel palpably in the room a sense that , Zelenskyy’s confidence of their ability to hold and to persevere,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, a former Democratic leader. “There was a sense in the room that, look, we can be successful.”
The sweeping Russia sanctions legislation from the late Sen. Graham marked the boldest push to back Ukraine since President Donald Trump came back to the White House. Coming after two years of legislative gridlock, it would be among the rare actions Congress has taken since lawmakers approved supplemental aid funding for Ukraine in 2024.
The Senate moved the sanctions bill forward that evening, with Zelenskyy sitting in the chamber to watch , senators waving and giving him a thumbs-up as they cast their votes. A few days later, it passed easily, 86-11, sending the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act to the House.
But where it goes from here is far from clear. House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a Republican conference that is hesitant to entangle itself in overseas matters. Meanwhile, many Democrats who back Ukraine caution that the bill would give Trump sweeping tariff authority with little oversight from Congress.
Daniel Balson, with the pro-democracy advocacy group Razom for Ukraine, is urging lawmakers to keep up the pressure.
“It’s important not to underestimate symbolically what this would mean,” Balson said. “It would show Ukrainians that, hiccups and all, there is still an international alliance that stands behind Ukraine’s fight.”
Zelenskyy was welcomed, but at times has been turned away
It wasn’t the first time Zelenskyy had come to Washington to a hero’s welcome , and it might not be the last.
But in between those visits there have been stretches of deep uncertainty in what has stretched into a long war, one longer than World War I.
Zelenskyy first appeared on a private video call with lawmakers in March 2022, just days after the war began, appealing for the U.S. to send aircraft to help shield Ukraine’s skies from Russian bombardment. That winter, he delivered an emotional Christmas-time address to Congress, thanking “every American” in a speech that drew comparisons to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s wartime visit.
Yet Congress dropped another round of Ukraine funding in 2023 as Republicans aligned with Trump, who was emerging as the Republican Party’s front-runner to reclaim the White House.
And after Trump returned to power in 2025, action on Ukraine aid came to a standstill. Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy during a widely watched Oval Office meeting, mocking Zelenskyy’s “hatred” of Putin as an obstacle to peace.
“This has largely hinged on President Trump,” said Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a former Air Force brigadier general, explaining that more Republicans would openly back Ukraine if Trump signaled support.
Still, Zelenskyy kept ties with Congress strong, meeting with lawmakers overseas and returning to the Capitol as he did after Graham’s funeral in Washington on July 28.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Zelenskyy has been through a “kind of a baptism by fire since he’s been president in the middle of war, trying to manage confusing messages coming out of Washington.”
Next steps for the bill are uncertain, despite Graham’s efforts
It took Graham essentially a full year to win Trump over on the Russia sanctions package, and when he succeeded he quickly shared the news with Senate colleagues last month at the NATO summit in Turkey. Graham, who then flew on to Kyiv, died days later back in Washington, likely of a torn aorta.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who had worked with Graham throughout the long process, said Graham told him that securing Trump’s backing was a “BFD,” slang for a really big deal.
At its heart, the bill aims to choke off Moscow’s oil and gas revenue by leaning on China, India and other buyers to stop purchasing Russian energy. It would permit Trump to impose sweeping tariffs of up to 100% on goods from those countries entering the U.S.
Liberal Democrats have reservations , not about Zelenskyy or Ukraine , but about the tariff provisions, which they fear Trump could wield in ways Congress has no ability to restrain.
Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, have both raised concerns about the bill. More than 30 senators had backed a failed amendment aimed at curbing Trump’s tariff powers.
“This is not so much a sanctions bill as it is a massive backdoor authority for President Trump to impose more tariffs, including on our European allies, that hurt American families,” Meeks said in a statement.
Hoyer, who teamed up with Meeks on a separate Ukraine security act that passed the House earlier this year over Johnson’s objections, is urging his colleagues not to let this opportunity slip away. He is convinced that Congress and the courts will keep the president in line.
“You know there was so much negative vibes that we were sending,” Hoyer said. “We’ve got to send a letter to these courageous Ukrainians that we’re with them.”