Chairman Wicker Calls for Tougher Sanctions Against Russia on Senate Floor

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today called for a tougher round of sanctions against Russia from the Senate floor. In a speech delivered on Tuesday morning, Chairman Wicker denounced Putin's brutality and his repeated attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine before calling for stronger sanctions on Russia.

Read Chairman Wicker's remarks as delivered today:

I come to the floor today to join with President Trump and with a bipartisan majority of my colleagues in the Senate, in calling for another, tougher round of sanctions against Russia and its war machine. For the past eight months, President Trump and President Zelensky have extended the hand of peace. Ukraine has committed to a ceasefire.

President Trump has sat down personally with Vladimir Putin on U.S. soil. In response, Putin has mocked the peace process by repeatedly escalating his attacks on the free people of Ukraine. And he is doing so even as we speak.

Over the weekend, Russia launched its largest aerial attack of the war. Putin rained over 800 Iranian-designed drones and missiles down on cities across Ukraine, include the capital, Kyiv. For the first time, Russia damaged Ukraine's main government building, where the Cabinet of Ministers meets. The burning building symbolizes Putin's ultimate prize-his dictatorship seeks to take down Ukraine's democratically elected government.

But on Sunday, President Trump said that he is ready to increase the economic pressure against Russia. I agree. So does commentator Mark Levin, an experienced political writer and analyst, and a prominent advocate for President Trump and his agenda. After the attack, Mr. Levin put it well when he said, "It's time to unleash an economic barrage against Putin-and sell NATO what Ukraine needs to slam back." And I say, "Amen!" Do not tolerate Putin's lies and games any longer.

President Trump has given Vladimir Putin every chance to show who he is. And time and again, Putin has shown himself to be a war criminal. Economic and military punishment is all Putin understands, and it's all he deserves.

Here is a brief refresher.

In February, Putin marked the third anniversary of his invasion by launching what then was the largest drone strike of the war. The next month, Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire-even though Ukraine is the one being invaded. The episode previewed a pattern that has continued ever since. Ukraine shows its intention for peace and security. And Putin always escalates his unprovoked attacks.

In March, Russia launched drones and ballistic missiles into a residential neighborhood in President Zelensky's hometown. Putin fired cluster munitions into the city, sending shrapnel - where did he send it? - into restaurants, homes, and even a children's playground. He killed nine children in that strike. Once again, the world saw Putin escalate, targeting a non-military town-because that is where President Zelensky is from. The actions of a war criminal.

In the following months of 2025, Presidents Trump and Zelensky remained committed to peace. But then, in May, Putin launched 273 drones against Ukraine. It was a new record, but he broke even that evil benchmark a few days later. In the largest combined drone and missile attack of the war so far, he launched 367 aerial weapons against Ukraine. Once again, the world saw Putin escalate, proving to be a war criminal.

Amid the brutality, Putin has played games with peace talks. We've all seen it. With one hand, he signaled interest in negotiations. With the other, he lobbed bombs and kills civilians.

In early July of this year, he once again upped the ante. He sent 728 drones and 13 missiles to Ukraine, making clear his evil intention. Once again, the world saw Putin escalate, proving to be a war criminal. At this point, I need to mention that those attacks are making little progress for the invading Russians. That is a strong testament to the will and resolve of the Ukrainian people and military who are simply defending their own country, their own soil - and doing so admirably.

In the aftermath of this attack in July, President Trump made the correct assessment that Vladimir Putin, "talks nice and then he bombs everybody." Those are President Trump's words, and I congratulate him on that observation.

The barrage prompted President Trump to work with NATO to supply Ukraine with more arms. He also gave Russia a deadline to pursue peace.

And just this weekend, the world saw the war criminal escalate again. As he dropped more than 800 Russian drones onto civilians, neighborhoods, and government buildings, Vladimir Putin sent an unambiguous message: He is not interested in peace. He is interested in conquering Ukraine. And he won't stop there.

As if this weekend's attacks were not a clear enough sign of his intentions, Putin continued his brutality just this morning. Just this morning, Mr. President. He launched a glide bomb into a village, killing at least 24 Ukrainians who had lined up to receive their pension payments. Nearly two dozen more were wounded, and the statistics are still coming in. Just last week, Russia struck another hospital-this time in the Donetsk-killing two people and damaging medical facilities.

I could go on with more examples, but it is worth stopping here to again make the point that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made in an interview with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News this morning. The first is that there is very little military objective to strikes like these. Twenty-four innocents killed is a tragedy, but it is not a resounding military success. That is because Putin has not and cannot make very many resounding military successes.

The second is that Putin clearly has no intention to stop. This morning, former Secretary Pompeo, a distinguished former member of President Trump's cabinet, said, "Vladimir Putin has zero interest in any negotiated solution. He is going to stay at this until there is enormous cost imposed on him." and I think that's what the President of the United States was saying just a day or so ago. In other words, there is no reason to believe that Putin wants anything less than to take the country of Ukraine successfully and that he will not stop until he is forced to stop.

The Kremlin is projecting confidence at home, but it is a sham. This morning, a Moscow newspaper said, "The Kremlin believes Russia is slowly but surely achieving its goals in Ukraine." I disagree with that, Mr. President. "So, Moscow doesn't intend to stop or feel any desire for half-hearted solutions & half-baked compromises." Could there be any doubt that this is a true statement? They have a fake confidence, but they have no intention of stopping.

Mr. Putin is regularly shutting down internet access for Russian citizens, so they won't know what's going on in the war, so they won't know how slowly they're moving. Allowing only approved sites that do not allow the truth to come through. This is Russian totalitarianism at its best - or worst.

Putin hopes to project enough confidence at home to sustain the war effort and wear Ukraine down. Abroad, he hopes to wait out the West with fake peace talks while he continues pummeling Ukraine with missiles and drones of death.

And where does Putin's rain of fire come from? It comes from Russia's war machine, which produces what seems like an endless supply of deadly drones. But it does not have to be endless. Today, Russia barely has the economic capacity to continue bombarding Ukrainians, barely. But now at last President Trump has indicated he is willing to cut off that capacity. Again, I say "Amen."

We must be willing to cut it off. And again, a huge bipartisan majority of Senators have said this. Russia's friends are only encouraging his villainy. China is buying and selling with Russia, enabling its war machine. North Korea sent its troops to assist Russian soldiers on the battlefield. Iran designs and supplies weapons. That is a troubling axis of aggressors.

In the face of such malicious collaboration, we must use every available tool to increase pressure on Putin's war machine. Extending the hand of peace has not worked with this dictator because this dictator is not interested in peace. He will respond only to strength. He will act only if his war machine begins running out of funds-and we can help accomplish that.

The U.S. Senate has shown broad support for increasing Russian sanctions. Eighty-four senators have signed onto a tough sanctions bill that can help us bankrupt Putin's war machine. I am ready to work with my colleagues and the president to put real costs on Putin for these war crimes. I congratulate the President of the United States for his strong statement this weekend. As Mark Levin said, let us "unleash an economic barrage against Putin." Well said. Let us do it today.