The House voted Wednesday to take up legislation that would impose sweeping new sanctions on Russia and provide additional aid to Ukraine, as six Republicans and an independent broke with party leaders to join Democrats in forcing the measure to the floor, The New York Times reported.
The 218-to-204 procedural vote does not pass the bill into law and it still must win full passage in the House and face significant obstacles beyond, but its advancement signals a bipartisan willingness to directly target Russia’s oil and gas sector in new ways, including through sanctions targeting the global financial messaging infrastructure used to route payments to blacklisted Russian banks, and secondary sanctions on foreign entities facilitating Russia’s military cooperation with North Korea.
The bill, formally titled the “Ukraine Support Act,” spans three titles covering diplomacy, security assistance, and sanctions.
The legislation would mandate direct sanctions on major Russian financial institutions, including Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Alfa Bank, and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Separate provisions would target Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy conglomerate, and any foreign entity that knowingly engages in significant transactions with it, with a limited waiver available only for medical or industrial isotope production where domestic supply is insufficient.
The measure would also impose sanctions on vessels transporting Russian oil in violation of the G7 price cap, require a strategy to enhance international compliance with the price cap policy, target global financial messaging services that continue providing SWIFT-like access to sanctioned Russian banks, and prohibit U.S. persons from transacting in new Russian sovereign debt.
A provision targeting Russia-North Korea military cooperation would sanction any foreign person or financial institution facilitating arms transfers or logistical support between the two countries.
On the evasion front, the bill would target international organizations, companies, banks, and governments that continue doing business with sanctioned Russian entities—provisions primarily aimed at actors in China, Central Asia, and other jurisdictions that have helped Russia circumvent Western restrictions, the Times reported.
It would also close a loophole by banning imports of refined petroleum products processed at refineries outside Russia that used Russian crude oil, and would impose a minimum 500 percent tariff on all goods imported from Russia. The bill would additionally eliminate a sanctions waiver Trump approved earlier this year that provided limited relief.
Approximately $8 billion in direct loans and foreign military financing for Ukraine and NATO allies would be appropriated, as well as roughly $1.8 billion in direct spending, under the measure. Additional provisions would establish an Insurance for Ukraine Initiative within the State Department to encourage war risk insurance for the country, create a Ukraine Reconstruction Trust Fund within the U.S. Treasury to be funded through taxes on blocked Russian sovereign assets, and authorize $250 million for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The vote was achieved through a discharge petition—a procedural maneuver allowing rank-and-file lawmakers to bypass leadership and force a bill to the floor with a majority of members’ signatures, the Times said.
