Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) yesterday travelled to Kyiv, Ukraine to express support from the U.S. Congress and help Ukraine and its leaders achieve victory against Russia’s brutal and unjust invasion. While in Ukraine, the senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his cabinet, and visited Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital and a power plant to observe the scale of Russia’s attacks against Ukraine. The senators also held a press conference before returning to Poland.
“As we approach the four-year mark of Vladimir Putin’s illegal, barbaric invasion of Ukraine, the immense bravery of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire awe around the world. I travelled to Ukraine to show that Congress and the American people stand with Ukraine, despite President Trump’s submissiveness to Vladimir Putin,” said Whitehouse. “Ukraine can win this war, and Putin and his corrupt regime must pay for the brutal invasion of a peaceful neighbor. To support Ukraine’s fight for freedom, the Trump administration and our European allies should repurpose Russia’s already-frozen sovereign assets for Ukraine’s benefit and disrupt the shadow fleet of oil and gas tankers that fill Putin’s war coffers.”
Whitehouse and Blumenthal have championed U.S. support for Ukraine from the start of Russia’s invasion. Shortly after the invasion in 2022, Whitehouse and Blumenthal partnered with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to establish the informal Ukraine Victory Caucus. Whitehouse and Graham engaged in a colloquy on the Senate floor focused on the need for the U.S. and its allies to recognize that Ukrainian victory was possible. Whitehouse and Blumenthal first travelled to Ukraine in January 2023.
Senators Whitehouse and Blumenthal worked to include the following provisions in the FY2026 NDAA and appropriations packages that are now law:
- $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI);
- Extending USAI’s statutory authority to December 2029;
- Statutory authority for the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) Initiative, by which NATO allies purchase American weapons and equipment to send to Ukraine;
- Ensuring every US intelligence agency can continue sharing intelligence with Ukraine;
- Extending the authorization for the Intelligence Community Coordinator for Russian Atrocities Accountability;
- Including a Sense of Congress provision finding that Russia has abducted, forcibly transferred, or facilitated the illegal deportation of at least 20,000 Ukrainian children; and
- Including the Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act, which commits the U.S. to helping recover forcibly transferred children.
Senators Whitehouse’s bipartisan REPO for Ukrainians Act passed into law in April 2024. The law allows frozen sovereign assets of the Russian Federation to be used, including through seizure, for rebuilding Ukraine. In October 2024, the Biden administration and G7 allies announced a collective $50 billion loan to Ukraine, to be repaid with funds generated by Russia’s frozen sovereign assets. The United States contributed $20 billion of the $50 billion loan from Russia’s proceeds, which was disbursed at no cost to taxpayers. In September, Whitehouse and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch (R-ID) introduced the bipartisan REPO 2.0 bill to better implement REPO Act and encourage the administration to send frozen Russian sovereign assets under U.S. jurisdiction to Ukraine on a quarterly basis.
Whitehouse, Blumenthal, Risch, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) have also introduced the SHADOW Fleets Sanctions Act to crack down on the fleet of dangerously dilapidated and reflagged oil tankers that Russia uses to circumvent existing U.S. sanctions, fuel its economy, and fund its war on Ukraine. The legislation, which last month advanced out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, punishes the facilitators and enablers of Putin’s shadow fleet and further discourages countries from purchasing Russian oil. Whitehouse, in his role as Senate Ranking Member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, also sent a bipartisan, bicameral letterto Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent urging the Trump administration to impose further sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet.
On Saturday, the bipartisan CODEL McCain delegation issued a joint statement urging significantly increased interdiction of the shadow fleet that is servicing Russia’s oil economy.
Whitehouse, Graham, and Blumenthal’s bipartisan, bicameral Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act would aid Ukraine by allowing the U.S. government to more quickly seize and transfer private assets owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and others that aid the Russian government in violation of U.S. laws. The measure would also clarify that the U.S. government can transfer to Ukraine all the funds it acquires through seizure of Russian oligarch assets. In late 2022, Whitehouse and Graham passed bipartisan legislation into law to allow for the first time the transfer of seized assets of Putin and his corrupt oligarchs to help pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
