Supporters of a bill to lock in U.S. assistance for Ukraine and impose fresh sanctions on Russia collected their 218th signature on a discharge petition Wednesday, clearing the way for a House floor vote in the coming weeks — a direct challenge to Republican leaders who have balked at moving legislation while President Donald Trump insists a peace deal is close.
The measure, spearheaded by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D‑N.Y.), would appropriate more than $1 billion in direct security aid and authorize up to $8 billion in loans for Ukraine. It would also tighten sanctions on Moscow. The petition succeeded after independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California became the decisive signatory, joining 215 Democrats and Republicans Don Bacon of Nebraska and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
“We must also send a strong message that Russian support for Iran’s targeting of U.S. military assets will not be tolerated,” Kiley said in a statement explaining his support.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had opposed the petition, urged colleagues to wait. “The latest news out of Russia is that it looks like the war is scaling back, scaling down, coming to a conclusion. I think Vladimir Putin said that himself in the last few days, and so this would be a good time for Congress to see how that pans out,” Johnson said. “So I’m going to be talking to my colleagues about that.”
Putin, in a speech last weekend, suggested his invasion of Ukraine is “coming to an end.” Trump, speaking Tuesday while departing for a summit in Beijing, said, “The end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close. Believe it or not, it’s getting closer.”
But on Wednesday — the day the petition reached 218 signatures — Russia fired at least 800 drones in a massive daytime barrage across Ukraine, killing at least six people, including children, and wounding dozens, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was one of the longest attacks of the four‑year war, he said.
Fitzpatrick rejected the idea that the fighting is subsiding. “There’s people dying as we speak, so no, the war is not winding down,” he said, adding that the only way he would not vote for the Meeks measure would be if Russia withdrew its forces from Ukraine.
Meeks said the vote would put lawmakers on the record. “Members of Congress, some tell me that they are supportive of Ukraine. Well, we’re going to finally get a vote on the floor to make that determination,” he said. The House vote, he added, will “put pressure on the Senate and I think it should tell the president that America is looking and we want to stand by our allies and not Vladimir Putin.”
The path in the Senate remains uncertain. Majority Leader John Thune voiced skepticism about moving Russia sanctions, telling reporters “we have such a pileup” of other legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has pushed for a Russia sanctions bill in the Senate, said Wednesday, “There are parts of the House bill I like, parts of it that I don’t.”
Lawmakers in both parties have also grown frustrated that the Department of Defense has not yet spent $400 million in military aid for Ukraine that Congress appropriated last year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a hearing this week that the Pentagon is working on a plan to disburse those funds.
Support for Ukraine has been one of the sharpest points of tension between Congress and Trump, who campaigned on a promise to settle the war quickly but has been unable to broker a peace deal, even as his administration has pulled back from some military commitments to Europe.