Ukraine Support Act

Introduced by Rep. Meeks in April 2025, the Ukraine Support Act packages military, diplomatic, economic, and sanctions tools to sustain U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia's ongoing invasion. On the military side, it extends the lend-lease authority that lets the President loan or lease defense equipment to Ukraine through 2028, adds $600 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (the annual program that funds training and lethal weapons), and authorizes up to $8 billion in direct military loans to Ukraine and NATO allies — doubling the prior $4 billion cap — while bypassing standard repayment conditions. Economically, it creates a Ukraine Reconstruction Trust Fund inside the U.S. Tax Code, funded by a 100-percent tax on interest and dividend income from Russian and Belarusian sovereign assets that are already frozen under emergency economic powers; those funds can only be spent on rebuilding Ukraine's infrastructure, humanitarian aid, or governance reform, and must comply with standard foreign-aid oversight rules. On sanctions, the bill requires the President — within 15 days of a determination that Russia is still waging war on Ukraine — to impose asset freezes and visa bans on major Russian banks (including Sberbank and VTB), the entire Russian oil and gas sector, named senior Russian officials and military commanders, and anyone helping Russia acquire North Korean weapons or build infrastructure connecting the Russian mainland to occupied Crimea; it also directs a 500-percent tariff on all Russian imports and closes a loophole by banning petroleum products refined outside Russia that were made from Russian crude. To prevent any President from quietly lifting these sanctions, the bill creates a congressional review process: before terminating, waiving, or significantly altering any Russia sanction — including several existing executive orders — the President must notify Congress, Congress then has 30 to 60 days to review, and both chambers can pass a joint resolution to block the action. Additional provisions authorize $250 million for Radio Free Europe to counter Russian disinformation, expand U.S. war risk insurance to NATO and Ukrainian ships carrying cargo to or from Ukraine, allow the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to invest in Ukraine, direct a strategy to reduce European dependence on Russian nuclear technology, and add export controls that extend U.S. technology restrictions to foreign-made products destined for Russia if they incorporate American technology.