The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act (H.R. 5334) by a vote of 262-159 on September 16, sending it to President Trump’s desk — where, as of today, it still awaits his signature. Razom We Stand, the Ukrainian-founded energy and policy organisation, is calling on the President to sign the bill in full, without delay, and without leaning on the waivers it hands him to go easy on Russia’s biggest remaining customers.
Overnight into September 17, Russian missiles and drones wounded at least 19 people, including children, in strikes on Kyiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia — a reminder that every day this bill goes unenforced is a day Russia keeps funding the war against courageous Ukrainians, with the same oil and gas revenue the bill is designed to cut off.
Dr Svitlana Romanko, Founder and Executive Director of Razom We Stand, said:
“Mr President, this bill has been sitting on your desk since Wednesday, and every hour it stays there unsigned, Russia keeps selling oil and buying more drones and rockets that rain down upon us every day. Last night alone, Russian missiles and drones hit Kyiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia, wounding 19 people, including children — that is what waiting costs us. Sanctions have already taken a trillion euros out of Russia’s war chest; you now hold a pen that could make that number so much bigger, and hand Ukraine real leverage at any table where a just peace gets negotiated. So sign it, and sign it whole: no quiet waivers for Moscow’s biggest customers like China, no exemption used as a favor. A signature on a weakened bill full of cutouts and loopholes isn’t leadership — it’s a gift to the Kremlin, resulting in continued war and suffering for the Ukrainian people.”
The EU’s own foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told the European Parliament this month that Europe’s sanctions have already deprived the Russian economy of over a trillion euros. A fully enforced US bill would add to that toll and hand Ukraine real leverage at any table where a just peace gets negotiated — but only if President Trump chooses to use that leverage rather than trade it away.
The bill gives the President broad room to do the latter: he can suspend tariffs against any targeted country simply by certifying to Congress that doing so serves US national security, and it automatically exempts countries that import less than 15% of their gas from Russia and are taking steps to cut that further. Razom We Stand is urging President Trump not to use that discretion to shield Russia’s largest remaining oil and gas customers from the accountability this bill was built to deliver.
Trump’s actions will make a difference if he stops looking away from the US companies still helping sustain the revenue flowing to Russia’s war chest. SLB, the Houston-based oilfield services giant, has kept signing new contracts with Russian state-linked institutions and training staff on oil-extraction technology years after the invasion — work that helps keep Russian crude, the Kremlin’s single largest source of war revenue, flowing to market. If the President wants this bill to actually stop the money paying for strikes like last night’s on Kyiv and Odesa, closing the sanctions gaps that let a US company keep doing that has to be part of the job.
Razom We Stand is calling on President Trump to:
1. Sign the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, H.R. 5334, in full and without further delay.
2. Decline to use waivers or loopholes to spare Russia’s biggest remaining oil and gas customers from its tariffs.
3. Direct full, immediate enforcement — not selective application — so the bill’s leverage is real, not theoretical.
