US senators urge Trump administration to enforce new Russia sanctions law ahead of Oct. 18 deadline

U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker are pressing the Trump administration to begin implementing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act as soon as possible. While most of the law's provisions take effect on Oct. 18, the bipartisan senators urged the administration not to wait until the deadline.

In a letter shared with the Kyiv Independent and later made public, Shaheen and Wicker argued that Russia's intensified missile strikes targeting Ukraine's civilian population and energy infrastructure, along with new North Korean troop deployments, make immediate economic pressure necessary.

The senators called for tougher action against Russia's oil revenues and sanctions-evasion networks, urging the administration to match European and U.K. designations of shadow-fleet vessels. The EU and U.K. have designated more than 600 vessels, compared to 216 by the United States, most of them in early 2025.

Shaheen and Wicker warned that the gap leaves hundreds of tankers able to continue transporting oil and ultimately feeding the Russian war machine while avoiding U.S. restrictions. They urged Washington to match allied shadow-fleet designations one-for-one, arguing that U.S. sanctions have added impact by cutting vessels off from the global dollar system and Western maritime services.

In the letter, Shaheen and Wicker acknowledged the administration's sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft in 2025, saying they dealt a significant blow to a major source of Moscow's revenues. They noted, however, that Russia has since bypassed those sanctions, routing transactions through intermediaries concentrated in the UAE and Hong Kong, and called on the administration to target those networks.

The senators also urged Washington to impose secondary sanctions on third-country suppliers in China, the UAE and Türkiye that provide advanced machine tools, microelectronics, and other dual-use components used in Russian ammunition production and jet-powered drones.

The letter further called for sanctions against companies supporting Russia's Rassvet low-Earth-orbit satellite network, including Bureau 1440, 5C Group and Eltex. The senators warned that a fully deployed constellation could strengthen Russian battlefield communications and targeting capabilities.

Shaheen and Wicker also pointed to recent reports of a possible multi-billion-dollar deal involving Lukoil's international assets, arguing that the Treasury Department should make clear that financing Russian state-linked businesses would violate the law's investment restrictions.

Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law on Sept. 18.

Most provisions take effect Oct. 18, marking the first major deadline for the administration to demonstrate how aggressively it intends to wield the new sanctions authority.