Russian President Vladimir Putin is delaying peace negotiations while planning a major new offensive in Ukraine, two senior US senators warned Sunday, saying the next two weeks could determine the war’s future.
Speaking in Paris after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal accused Putin of using the Istanbul peace talks as cover for military escalation. Both senators described the war’s toll as staggering and called on the US Congress to act swiftly.
At the heart of their push is a bipartisan sanctions bill, backed by nearly the entire US Senate but still facing uncertain odds in Washington. It would impose 500% tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports, targeting nations like China and India that account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.Graham called it “the most draconian bill I’ve ever seen in my life in the Senate.”
“The world has a lot of cards to play against Putin,” he said. “We’re going to hit China and India for propping up his war machine.”
Peace talks are scheduled to resume on Monday in Istanbul. But Ukrainian officials say Moscow has yet to submit a serious proposal — a delay both senators described as deliberate and dangerous.
“Putin is playing President Trump,” Blumenthal said. “He’s taking him for a sucker.” The senator said Putin ”is, in effect, stalling and stonewalling, prolonging the conversation so that he can mount this offensive and take control of more territory on the ground.”Graham added: “We saw credible evidence of a summer or early fall invasion, a new offensive by Putin. … He’s preparing for more war.”
Trump has yet to endorse the sanctions bill, telling reporters Friday: “I don’t know. I’ll have to see it.” Graham said the legislation was drafted in consultation with Trump’s advisers.
Graham backed the president’s diplomatic instincts but said, ”By trying to engage Putin — by being friendly and enticing — it’s become painfully clear he’s not interested in ending this war.”
Blumenthal hoped the bipartisan support for Ukraine at least in the Senate — and the personal testimonies they plan to bring home to Congress and the Oval Office— may help shift the conversation.
“He needs to see and hear that message as well from us, from the American people,” he said of Putin.
In Kyiv, the senators said, the war’s human toll was impossible to ignore. Graham pointed to what Ukrainian officials and Yale researchers estimate are nearly 20,000 children forcibly deported to Russia — calling their return a matter of justice, not diplomacy.
