The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill to punish Russia and key buyers of its petroleum products, such as China and India, claiming that such trade helps fuel the Ukraine war.

The bill, renamed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, was approved by the Senate by an 86-11 vote.

It allows President Donald Trump to impose 100% tariffs on goods from countries that are the top five importers of Russian oil and gas.

At present China, India, Azerbaijan, Hungary and Slovakia are top five importers of oil and gas from Russia.

In addition to Russia sanctions, the bill would extend till 2031 the expiration date of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which penalises companies that invest in Iran’s energy sector.

The bipartisan bill was championed by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away on July 11, and Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

After Graham’s sudden death following a trip to Kyiv, leaders across the aisle moved with renewed vigour to ensure passage of the bill and honour the late Senator’s legacy as an ally of Ukraine.

“This bill forces those primary countries keeping Russia’s economy afloat to make a simple yet critical choice – a choice between doing business with America or buying cheap Russian energy,” said Darline Graham, the late senator’s sister who was appointed to his seat after his death.

It also seeks to impose sanctions on Russian leaders and officials, targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, oligarchs and financial institutions.

Following the vote, Senator Blumenthal told reporters that Lindsey Graham would be “proud of what we’ve done”.

“These sledgehammer sanctions and tariffs will stop all who are complicit in this murderous, criminal war of aggression against brave free people,” Mr. Blumenthal said.

Some Democrats have warned that the bill would give Mr. Trump new tariff powers at a time when he has put such levies at the centre of his trade policy.

The bill will now go to the House of Representatives for approval when it reconvenes on August 31.

Democrat Congressmen Gregory Meeks and Don Beyer have criticised the legislation for creating “sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponise with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past”.

“We welcome our Senate colleagues’ urgent effort to support Ukraine and punish Russia for its continued illegal war, but this bill would not achieve those goals. Instead, it would allow President Trump to dodge holding Russia accountable and impose yet more tariffs in his destructive trade wars, leaving Americans to foot the bill,” the two leaders said.

Russian Foreign ​Minister Sergei Lavrov and ‌U.S. Secretary of State ​Marco ⁠Rubio discussed the Ukraine conflict and the normalisation ‌of U.S.-Russia relations in a ‌meeting in ‌Manila ⁠on Thursday (July 23, 2026), the ⁠Russian Foreign Minister said.

Mr. Lavrov “reaffirmed Russia’s readiness for a ​political ‌and diplomatic settlement of the conflict,” the Ministry’s statement said, and ‌told Mr. Rubio ​that Moscow remained committed to ⁠proposals put forward by Presidents Donald ‌Trump and Vladimir Putin at their August 2025 meeting in Alaska.

The two men, ‌who met on the ​sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum, ⁠agreed to continue ⁠contacts, the Russian statement said. 

A strike on a ship in the Black Sea carrying propane to the Ukrainian port of Reni wounded three seafarers and forced the crew’s evacuation, Romania’s President said on Tuesday (July 21, 2026).

“Last night, the LPG tanker Gas Lisbon, flying the Liberian flag, was struck outside Romanian territorial waters, approximately 20 nautical miles off the Romanian coast,” Nicusor Dan said on X. While the authorities were still working to establish who had hit the tanker, Mr. Dan claimed the incident was “most likely part of the Russian Federation’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine”.

The strike on the ship, which was carrying more than 3,790 tonnes of propane from the port of Alexandria in Egypt, caused a major fire on board the vessel. After the strike, two Romanian rescue vessels evacuated the ship’s 17 crew members, including three who “required emergency medical care”, the emergency services said. “Two victims had burns covering approximately 10-15% of their bodies, and the third had suffered multiple wounds and was bleeding,” the statement said.

The Black Sea has been a regular theatre of confrontation between Ukraine and Russia since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. Also on Tuesday (July 21, 2026), India summoned Russia’s top envoy in New Delhi to protest against a weekend attack on a cargo ship in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa that killed four Indian nationals.

India on Tuesday (July 21, 2026) summoned the Russian charge d’affaires (CDA) and lodged a strong protest over the killing of four Indian seafarers aboard a Guinea Bissau-flagged merchant vessel off the coast of Ukraine.

Sources said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) told the Russian diplomat that the attack on the merchant vessel, which killed Indians, was unacceptable.

Russia attacked the civilian vessel navigating Ukraine’s maritime corridor on Sunday (July 19, 2026) and its crew included citizens of Syria and India.

It is the first instance of death of Indian seafarers in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship was hit by Russian cruise missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

The vessel— MV Golden Leo— had 17 crew members, including five Indian nationals, according to the MEA.

India condemned the attack and reiterated that targeting commercial shipping and endangering innocent civilian crew members is “deplorable and should be avoided”.

“On the evening of July 19, the vessel MV Golden Leo was attacked while departing the port of Odesa. At the time of the incident, there were 17 crew members on board, including five Indian nationals,” the MEA said on Monday night.

“As per information available, four Indian nationals have tragically lost their lives, while one is hospitalised in a critical condition,” it had said.

The MEA said the Indian mission in Ukraine is closely monitoring the situation and is making every effort to extend all possible assistance to those affected.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased Indian nationals and wish the injured Indian national a speedy and full recovery,” it said in a statement.

Without directly naming Russia, the MEA had said: “India condemns such attacks and reiterates that targeting commercial shipping and endangering innocent civilian crew members, or otherwise impeding freedom of navigation and commerce, is deplorable and should be avoided.”

The Kremlin said on Thursday that there is ​no immediate prospect of resuming peace talks with Ukraine, though it said that Russia remains open ​to the idea of negotiations.

Kremlin spokesman ⁠Dmitry Peskov said Russia was appreciative of Turkey’s willingness to help peace efforts, but no new talks were expected for ‌now.

“We are well aware of our Turkish friends’ readiness to continue facilitating a ‌shift toward a peaceful resolution of the situation ‌surrounding ⁠Ukraine,” Peskov told reporters.

“We are grateful ⁠to the Turkish side for this. At the moment, however, there are no immediate prospects for resuming the negotiation process; we ​do not see ‌any such signs. Nevertheless, the Russian side certainly remains open to this path.”

Nearly 4-1/2 years into the war, the front lines remain largely static while ‌Russia and Ukraine strike each other’s cities and ​key energy infrastructure and attack vessels at sea.

Three short rounds of peace ⁠talks took place in Istanbul in 2025, followed at the start of this year by two rounds ‌in Abu Dhabi and one in Geneva with mediation by the United States.

But with Washington distracted by the war with Iran, negotiations on ending the Ukraine war broke off in February.

“A Ukrainian ​drone attack damaged a facility at ‌the Moscow oil refinery ​owned by Russia’s Gazpromneft,” ⁠Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Tuesday (June 16, 2026). “There were no casualties. Emergency ‌services are working at the scene,” Mr. Sobyanin wrote ‌on Telegram. He did ‌not ⁠say whether the refinery’s ⁠operations have been affected.

The plant, the biggest in the Moscow region, ​processed 11.6 million ‌tons of oil, producing 2.9 million tons of petrol and 3.2 million tons of ‌diesel in 2024, the ​latest available data showed. The number of drone strikes ⁠on Russian refineries has doubled since the start of 2026, ‌leading to full or partial shutdowns of oil processing and a decline in the production of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, according ‌to official data, social media, and ​Reuters calculations.

The Gazpromneft refinery serves the Moscow ⁠region, which has not so far ⁠been among the dozen or so Russian ‌regions where there have been supply disruptions.

“A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded at least three others in southern Russia,” a regional official said on Saturday (June 13, 2026), with nearly 100 people fighting to extinguish a fire caused by the strike.

 Russia-Ukraine Crisis

The attack damaged port installations in the Temryuk district on the Sea of Azov, near the Kerch Strait separating mainland Russia from the Crimean peninsula, which has been occupied by Moscow since 2014.

“As a result of falling drone debris, a fire broke out at a maritime terminal… one person was killed,” Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev posted on Telegram. He added that at least three people were wounded, according to first reports, and that 96 people had been drafted to fight the blaze.

The Russian Army said it had shot down a total of 177 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ukraine has stepped up its campaign of attacks within Russia in recent months, claiming fair retaliation for Moscow’s own massive bombardments across the more than four-year-long conflict.

Kyiv insists that the Ukrainian Army first and foremost targets military installations and energy infrastructure, in a bid to deprive the Kremlin’s war chest of vital fossil fuel revenues.

Russia fired hundreds of drones at Ukraine between late Thursday (June 4, 2026) and early Friday (June 5), killing seven people and destroying a factory that produces milk products for children, authorities said.

Images published by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed the ruins of a building bearing the logo of Ukrainian dairy producer “Yagotynske for Kids”, its facade partly destroyed and flames visible on one floor.

“The enemy attacked a peaceful civilian food industry enterprise,” Kyiv region governor Mykola Kalashnyk said in a post on Telegram. “Unfortunately, the number of people killed as a result of the hostile attack has increased to four people,” he said in a later post.

Separate strikes on Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region killed two people, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said, while a drone strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed one woman, according to the Ukrainian state emergency service.

Russia fired at least 216 drones at Ukraine between late Thursday (June 4) and early Friday (June 5), as well as two missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Moscow and Kyiv have intensified drone strikes on each other in recent months as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fifth year, remain stalled over the conflict in the West Asia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a meeting with Vladimir Putin in an open letter to the Russian leader late Thursday (June 4), saying it was only the leaders who could resolve “key issues”.

The Kremlin said it was aware of the letter but that Mr. Putin had yet to review it. The Russian leader has previously ruled out meeting Zelensky before a final deal is agreed and has questioned his legitimacy.

Russia is demanding Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas region as a precondition of any deal. Ukraine wants a full ceasefire along the current front lines, pending negotiations on a territorial settlement.

Ukraine’s military and regional officials on Monday (May 11, 2026) reported Russian drone strikes and battlefield clashes over ​the past 24 hours, despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Ukraine and ‌Russia agreed on Friday (May 8) to a ​ceasefire from May 9 to May 11 ⁠as part of a U.S.-led push for peace under President Donald Trump to end more than four years ‌of war since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The ceasefire, which Mr. Trump said on ‌Friday (May 8) he hoped would be extended, was ‌already ⁠showing signs of strain on Sunday (May 11), ⁠when each side accused the other of violating it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday (May 11) Moscow had refrained from large-scale ​aerial and missile ‌attacks but that it had continued assaults along parts of the long front where Russian forces are advancing.

Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine on Sunday ‌(May 11) of flouting the ceasefire, saying it had ​downed 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and “responded in kind” on the ⁠battlefield. It did not immediately report on the battlefield situation on Monday (May 11).

In Ukraine, one person was killed ‌, and two people were wounded in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, the regional governor said. Two were killed, and two were wounded in the southern region of Kherson, the Kherson region’s Governor said.

Three people were wounded in the neighbouring ‌Mykolaiv region, five were hurt in the northern region of ​Kharkiv, and four were wounded in the eastern region of Donetsk, according to reports ⁠by the regions’ Governors.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s ⁠military said 180 battlefield clashes had been recorded along the front line over the ‌past 24 hours and that Russian forces had on Sunday (May 11) deployed 8,037 “kamikaze” drones in attacks ​on settlements and military positions.