(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) All 100 members of the US Senate have been invited to a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday evening, when he will be in the US to attend the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham, Reuters reported on Monday.
Zelensky’s meeting with US senators will be around the same time that the Senate is expected to vote on a Russian sanctions bill that US lawmakers have said was put forward to “honor” Graham, who died on July 11 after returning home from a trip to Ukraine where he met with Zelensky and announced the White House had agreed to move forward on more Russia sanctions.
The legislation would impose sanctions on Russian officials and companies and would also give President Donald Trump the power to impose 100% tariffs on countries that purchase Russian energy, with carve-outs for US NATO allies. The initial bill that Graham was pushing last year would have required 500% tariffs.
President Trump had called on the Senate to add Iran sanctions to the bill because it’s what “Lindsey would have wanted,” and Senate leaders said they would do so, but it’s unclear if the Iran measures will be included in the bill that will be voted on during Zelensky’s visit.
Zelensky will also hold talks with President Trump at the White House, a meeting that comes as Ukraine has continued launching long-range drone attacks inside Russia that are supported by US intelligence. On Saturday, a Ukrainian drone struck an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea, marking an escalation between Kyiv and Tehran.
Since Trump held a contentious Oval Office meeting with Zelensky in February of last year, relations between the two leaders have improved, and at the recent NATO summit in Ankara, Trump praised Zelensky and said he backed Ukraine’s drone attacks in Russia, which have killed an increasing number of civilians. Trump also said that he would grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot missile interceptors, though it could take years for the production to start.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
