WASHINGTON: A delegation of US senators was returning Wednesday from a trip to Ukraine, hoping to spur action in Congress for a series of sanctions meant to economically cripple Moscow and pressure President Vladimir Putin to make key concessions in peace talks.
It was the first time US senators have visited Odesa, Ukraine’s third-most populous city and an economically crucial Black Sea port that has been particularly targeted by Russia, since the war began nearly four years ago. Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse made the trip. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis had planned to join but was unable to for personal reasons.
“One of the things we heard wherever we stopped today was that the people of Ukraine want a peace deal, but they want a peace deal that preserves their sovereignty, that recognizes the importance of the integrity of Ukraine,” Shaheen said on a phone call with reporters.
The visit and the push for Congress to take up sanctions on Russia come at a crucial moment in the conflict. Delegations for the two sides were also meeting in Switzerland for two days of US-brokered talks, but neither side appeared ready to budge on key issues like territory and future security guarantees. The sanctions, senators hoped, could prod Putin toward settling for peace, as the US has set a June deadline for settlement.
“Literally nobody believes that Russia is acting in good faith in the negotiations with our government and with the Ukrainians,” Whitehouse said. “And so pressure becomes the key.”
Still, legislation to impose tough sanctions on Russia has been on hold in Congress for months.
Senators have put forward a range of sanction measures, including one sweeping bill that would allows the Trump administration to impose tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russia’s oil, gas, uranium and other exports, which are crucial to financing Russia’s military. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has also advanced a series of more-targeted bills that would sanction China’s efforts to support Russia’s military, commandeer frozen Russian assets and go after what’s known as Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers being used to circumvent sanctions already in place.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has co-sponsored the Senate’s sweeping sanctions and tariff legislation, also released a statement during the Munich Security Conference this weekend saying that Senate Majority Leader John Thune had committed to bringing up the sanctions bill once it clearly has the 60 votes needed to move through the Senate.
“This legislation will be a game changer,” Graham said. “President Trump has embraced it. It is time to vote.”
Blumenthal, who co-sponsored that bill alongside Graham, also said there is bipartisan support for the legislation, which he called a “very tough sledgehammer of sanctions and tariffs,” but he also noted that “we need to work out some of the remaining details.” Democrats, and a handful of Republicans, have been opposed to President Donald Trump’s campaign to impose tariffs around the world in an effort to strike trade deals and spur more manufacturing in the US
In the House, Democrats are opposed to the tariff provisions of that bill. Instead, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, has proposed separate legislation that makes it more difficult for Trump to waive sanctions, but does away with the tariff provisions.
A separate bill, led by the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks, would bolster US military support for Ukraine by $8 billion. Democrats currently need one more Republican to support an effort to force a vote on that bill.
Once they return to the US, the senators said they would detail how US businesses based in Ukraine have been attacked by Russia. The Democrats are also hoping to build pressure on Trump to send more US weapons to Ukraine. “Putin understands weapons, not words,” Blumenthal said.
Still, the lawmakers will soon return to a Washington where the Trump administration is ambivalent about its long-term commitments to securing peace in Ukraine, as well as Europe. For now, at least, they were buoyed by the conversations from their European counterparts and Republican colleagues.
“We and the Republican senators who were with us in Munich spoke with one voice about our determination to continue to support Ukraine,” Coons said.
US senators visit key Ukrainian port city as they push for fresh sanctions on Russia
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US senators visit key Ukrainian port city as they push for fresh sanctions on Russia
- The visit and the push for Congress to take up sanctions on Russia come at a crucial moment in the conflict
‘No to the war’: Spain digs in as rift with US deepens
- Pedro Sanchez: ‘We will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values and interests’
- US forces use the Rota naval base and Moron air base in southern Spain under an agreement signed in 1953 under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco
MADRID: Spain’s prime minister defiantly posted “No to the war” on Wednesday, deepening a rift with the United States after Madrid refused the use of its bases to attack Iran and Washington threatened trade reprisals.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had already angered US President Donald Trump with a series of other policies.
Sanchez has refused to join NATO allies in a pledge to boost defense spending to five percent of GDP as demanded by Trump, and has fiercely criticized Israel’s war in Gaza.
Trump lashed out at Sanchez’s government on Tuesday, calling Spain a “terrible” ally and threatening to sever all trade with Spain.
Sanchez defended his position on Wednesday, saying his government’s position “can be summed up in four words: no to the war.”
“We will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of retaliation,” he added in a televised address.
Spain is part of the European Union, which allows goods to move freely between its 27 countries. This would complicate any bid to impose trade restrictions on a single member state.
“Trump’s words don’t always become policy. We will have to see if he follows through, and how,” said Angel Saz Carranza, director of the Esade Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, a Spanish think tank.
European Council chief Antonio Costa wrote on X that he had called Sanchez to “express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain.”
“The EU will always ensure that the interests of its member states are fully protected,” Costa said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also called to “express France’s European solidarity in response to the recent threats of economic coercion targeting Spain,” his office said.
‘Oppose this disaster’
US forces use the Rota naval base and Moron air base in southern Spain under an agreement signed in 1953 under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Spain, then led by conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, staunchly backed the United States by sending troops.
Spain’s participation in the Iraq war sparked huge street demonstrations and many Spaniards blame it for the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200 people.
A branch of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks and called for the withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq.
Sanchez on Wednesday compared the Iran attacks to the Iraq war, which he said increased terrorism, increased energy prices and led to a less secure world.
“We oppose this disaster,” he said in reference to the Iran war.
In contrast, neighboring Portugal authorized the United States to “conditionally” use an air base on the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean for the Iran strikes, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told parliament on Wednesday.
The authorization was granted as long as “these operations are defensive or retaliatory, are necessary and proportionate, and exclusively target military objectives,” Montenegro said.
The conservative leader said those conditions were “aligned with international law,” but he declined to openly support Sanchez or take a stance on the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Rally his base
The Spanish prime minister has emerged as a prominent figure for Europe’s disillusioned progressives, who see him as one of the few remaining openly leftist voices in a continent increasingly dominated by right-wing politics.
His opposition to the use of the bases is seen by some analysts as an attempt to rally his supporters around an issue that unites the Spanish left.
Sanchez, in power since 2018, heads a minority coalition government that struggles to pass legislation.
The popularity of his Socialist party has taken a hit from a string of sexual harassment and graft scandals ahead of the next general election due in 2027.
Many on Spain’s right consider Sanchez’s opposition to Trump as motivated more by domestic politics than by a moral compass.
The head of the main opposition conservative Popular Party which tops opinion polls, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, accused Sanchez on X of using foreign policy for “partisan” purposes.
Left-leaning daily newspaper El Pais urged Sanchez in an editorial on Wednesday to “resist the temptation” to “exploit widespread hostility toward Trump in Spanish society to boost his popularity.”
