US senators have urged Congress to pass sanctions against Russia after the 16 May ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Türkiye, failed to make significant progress.

Source: Reuters, as reported by European Pravda 

Details:Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Lindsey Graham stated that the US Senate should adopt sanctions against Russia.

Blumenthal noted that "Putin will continue stonewalling and slow-walking ceasefire efforts till his economy is hit hard – isolating it on a financial island," urging a vote on the sanctions bill.

Graham, who attended a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Türkiye during the week of 16 May, called for the bill’s adoption and criticised Putin’s decision not to participate in negotiations with Ukraine, stating that Russia’s tactics must no longer be tolerated.

Details:On 1 April, half of the US Senate, led by Blumenthal and Graham, introduced a bipartisan bill to impose sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin disrupts the US president’s peace efforts in Ukraine.

Among the penalties proposed in the bill are tariffs of up to 500 per cent on imported goods from countries that purchase Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products.

Background: 

• On 15 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Türkiye for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kremlin representatives.
• Russia has sent a low-level delegation led by Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky to the talks in Türkiye.
• Despite this, Zelenskyy sent a Ukrainian delegation led by Defence Minister Rustem Umierov to the talks in Istanbul, which engaged with the Russian delegation on 16 May.
• Media reports indicated that Moscow had demanded the absence of US representatives from the negotiations with Ukraine and had presented a number of unacceptable conditions to Kyiv.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon !