Congressional Democrats and some Republicans are signaling their intention to try to enact legislation to force President Donald Trump to reverse what some of them have called his “pro-Putin agenda.” The groundswell of bipartisan congressional criticism of Trump’s policy toward Russia, particularly as it relates to Ukraine, grew louder as this week began and it only gathered force on Tuesday. If Democrats do as well at the polls in November as some experts predict, particularly in the House, they and their GOP allies on this issue may make progress soon on their Russia-Ukraine concerns — in the next Congress if not during the lame-duck session. Kyiv concerns This month, the Trump administration waived the recently enacted sanctions law named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and lifted for six months U.S. sanctions on purchases of Russian diesel fuel. Ukraine’s supporters say those two actions will result in adding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest, perhaps by the equivalent of billions of dollars. Moreover, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and press reports over the last week, Space X’s Starlink and Starshield satellite services, on which Ukraine relies to defend itself, have in recent days been throttled down to inadequate speeds for operating Ukrainian air defenses. Related: Trump’s Russia moves could complicate lame-duck agenda Zelenskyy told reporters Tuesday at least some of those limitations are still in place. The reports have also said U.S. alerts to Ukraine of impending missile attacks have not happened as usual over the last week. Zelenskyy said the missile warnings returned after he spoke by phone on Tuesday with Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio. What’s more, the reports have indicated American deliveries of U.S.-built Patriot antimissile interceptors that European nations bought for Ukraine are being held up. Except for the sanctions relief, administration officials have denied they deliberately curtailed any of these forms of support for Ukraine. Legislative agenda Zelenskyy confirmed some of the reports in a call with a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers on Monday, participants said later. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on X on Monday that Zelenskyy “confirmed ongoing Starlink disruptions, reported interruptions to critical U.S. intelligence sharing and raised concerns about delays in air defense interceptors.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also took to X to describe the same call with Zelenskyy: "Bipartisan, bicameral support for Ukraine was clear & unequivocal, which we’ll be expressing in upcoming action." On Monday, the top Democrats on three key House panels issued a joint statement prefiguring their legislative plan. Reps. Adam Smith of Washington, from Armed Services; Gregory W. Meeks of New York, from Foreign Affairs; and Jim Himes of Connecticut, from Intelligence, vowed to advance legislation that would “compel” Trump to give Ukraine the “security, economic, and intelligence support” it needs. They also supported enacting a “fix” to the recently enacted Graham sanctions law so that it no longer gives the president the broad waiver authority that he exercised this month. “Russia's continued campaign of war crimes and its slaughtering of innocent civilians, aided by the Trump Administration’s pro-Putin agenda, demands urgent and forceful action from Congress to reaffirm that support,” the three senior Democrats wrote. Probes afoot Pressure is building for investigations into whether and how Trump administration officials allegedly made some of these decisions. On Oct. 15, nine senators from both parties requested that the Pentagon inspector general launch an investigation into the reports of restrictions on Starlink and Starshield. Rep. Michael R. Turner, R-Ohio, on Sunday called for a congressional investigation of how those actions came to pass. And four Democratic senators wrote a SpaceX executive on Monday asking for a detailed explanation of what has happened. Appropriators weigh in Amid reports that the White House made the call to restrict the satellite services for Ukraine, Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., a member of the Appropriations Committee, upbraided the Trump administration for what he called a deliberate weakening of Ukraine’s defenses. “The American people deserve to know who made this decision, why they made it, and how they can possibly justify putting more innocent Ukrainian lives in the crosshairs of Putin’s war machine,” Levin wrote. Other senior Democratic appropriators who may hold more powerful posts than they hold today in the next Congress, depending on the election results, spoke out on Tuesday. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., the ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, criticized the reported delays in Patriot deliveries. “Blocking defensive munitions does nothing to stop this conflict, it only emboldens Putin’s aggression,” McCollum said on X. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee, likewise said on X: “Slow-walking the approval of these transfers is putting countless civilians directly in harm’s way.” And Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the second-ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, who is facing a tough reelection battle, spoke out on X against the full gamut of recently reported limitations on support for Ukraine. “By restricting these tools, the Trump Administration isn't just leaving Ukrainians out to dry, it's also endangering American diplomats and servicemembers stationed at our US Embassy in Kyiv,” Kaptur wrote.
