US President Donald Trump said that he "doesn't know" whether he supports the bill prepared in the US Senate to tighten sanctions against Russia.
"I don't know. I'll have to see it. I'll look into it," the US leader told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Friday evening, answering a question about whether he supported the document, developed on the initiative of Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal.
Earlier, US senators said they would begin work on a bill next week that would strengthen sanctions against Russia, including by imposing restrictions on third countries.
On Friday in Kiev, Republican Lindsey Graham expressed confidence that his colleagues in the upper house of Congress were ready for this.
“I expect the Senate to move forward with the sanctions bill next week. There are members of the House of Representatives who are ready to take action. And you will see Congress act“, Graham said, commenting on the situation around Ukraine and possible US actions against Russia. He recalled that US President Donald Trump had previously had a two-week deadline to assess the progress of peace talks in Ukraine.
The bill in question was introduced in early April and provides for secondary sanctions against Russia's trading partners. The senators' proposal includes a 500% tariff on imports into the United States from countries that buy oil, gas, uranium and other goods from Russia.
Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul warned in a commentary published earlier on the American portal Responsible Statecraft that “the country that will suffer the greatest damage“ as a result of the possible approval of this bill will be the United States itself – “both economically and strategically”. If this bill is passed, it will lead to "an economic catastrophe of a magnitude" the United States has never seen before, the author writes.
"And while the bill is intended to punish Russia, it will also punish America's allies and even the United States itself", Paul noted. He said that dozens of countries, including key strategic allies of Washington and even the United States itself, continue to trade directly and indirectly with Russia.
"If these tariffs are imposed, they will make US trade with much of the world unsustainable, raise prices for American consumers and risk further weakening the dollar", Paul predicted. According to him, "it will also worsen US relations with several important allies at a time when geopolitics is becoming increasingly unstable". As reported by the Axios portal on May 20, citing its sources, Trump, after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the leaders of European countries and Vladimir Zelensky that he does not intend to tighten sanctions against Moscow now, since, according to the White House, he is serious about resolving the conflict in Ukraine. Putin and Trump spoke on May 19.
“I don't see anything that can happen in Istanbul on Monday that would give me any hope that Russia is interested in peace“, said the rapporteur Graham.
For his part, Senator Richard Blumenthal assured that Europe is ready to support the tightening of sanctions against Russia proposed by US lawmakers. According to Blumenthal, these plans were supported by “European allies“. “From here we go to Paris to talk to the senior leadership there. But there must be a unified approach," the legislator noted.