After supporters of the Ukraine-aid and Russia-sanctions measure hit a key procedural milestone, Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks said lawmakers were set to vote on the House floor in the coming weeks, even as the broader legislation remained unlikely to reach final passage. The effort depends on a signature petition designed to bypass Republican leadership and compel a recorded vote, putting Members on the record on their support for Ukraine.
Meeks’ initiative reached 218 signatures on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press report. The petition included 215 Democrats and two Republicans—Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania—and Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, an Independent, provided the final signature required to force the floor vote.
Supporters said the bill’s financing and sanction targets are meant to lock in U.S. assistance. The legislation would approve more than $1 billion in security aid and would make another $8 billion available as loans, according to the report. Meeks and other proponents have been pressing President Donald Trump to act more forcefully to deter Russia and to bolster Ukraine.
Kiley tied his support to the argument that strengthening Ukraine’s leverage would help advance what he described as a durable peace. In a statement explaining why he signed the petition, he also pointed to what he described as Russian support for Iran’s targeting of U.S. military assets, saying that “will not be tolerated,” according to the Associated Press account.
Speaker Mike Johnson voiced caution about when Congress would take the vote. Johnson said he was talking with some of the sponsors and suggested that a recent shift in the direction of the war—referencing comments attributed to Putin—could make the timing more favorable, describing the situation as one where Russia’s latest news appeared to show the war scaling back and “coming to a conclusion.”
But other lawmakers said the developments on the ground did not match the notion that the war is winding down. Fitzpatrick, in remarks included in the report, said he did not agree that the war is near a conclusion and said he would only refrain from voting on Meeks’ measure if Russia withdrew its forces from Ukraine. “There’s people dying as we speak, so no, the war is not winding down,” Fitzpatrick said.
Trump has also publicly discussed a potential near-term end to the conflict. The Associated Press report said Trump told reporters Tuesday that “The end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close,” adding that it was “getting closer,” as he left the White House for a summit in Beijing. The report said Putin, speaking last weekend, had described the invasion as “possibly ‘coming to an end.’”
At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described a continuing attack. The Associated Press report said that on Wednesday, Russia fired at least 800 drones in a large daytime barrage across Ukraine, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, including children, and that it was among the longest attacks by Moscow in the four-year war, according to Zelenskyy.
The House floor vote comes as lawmakers have spent months debating possible steps to sanction Russia, but the sanctions push has faced distractions. The report said much of that talk disappeared after Trump launched an attack on Iran in late February, and it described skepticism among Senate Republicans about whether the Senate could move on Russia sanctions amid other pending legislation.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed doubt that the Senate could act soon, saying “we have such a pileup” of other legislation. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a long-time proponent of a Senate Russia sanctions bill, said in the report that he liked parts of the House effort but did not endorse all of it.
Republicans and Democrats have also expressed frustration over delays in military aid implementation. The Associated Press report said lawmakers have been upset that the Department of Defense had not spent $400 million in military aid for Ukraine that lawmakers allotted last year, and it said that during a hearing earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon was working on a plan to spend those funds. Support for Ukraine has remained a key point of tension between Congress and Trump, according to the report, as Trump pledged to quickly settle the war early in his presidency but has struggled to show progress even as his administration has moved to withdraw support for Ukraine and for parts of Europe.