Trump waives the Russia sanctions he signed into law last month, days before they were to take effect, and Zelensky says the move only encourages Putin

The law was passed, signed, and then set aside by the same hand, all inside a month.

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday waiving many of the sanctions, restrictions and duties in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which he signed into law in mid September. The measures were due to take effect on Sunday. In the order, released by the White House, the president said he had submitted to Congress a certification that issuing the waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States.

What was waived was not a small instrument. The law would have imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on all goods brought into the United States from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas, and on any country that knowingly bought Russian oil or gas 30 days after the law was enacted or ranked among the top five countries helping Russia evade sanctions. Countries such as India, among the biggest buyers of Russian oil, had raised concerns about the bill while it moved through Congress. Its primary backer was the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

The waiver lands in the middle of an open turn toward Moscow. Reuters reported that the president has been warming toward Russia and publicly criticising President Zelensky, including suggesting that Ukraine needs a new leader, and that on October 9 he reached a deal with President Putin to lift sanctions on Russian fuel temporarily and import Russian diesel. Trump told reporters on Friday that he would continue to deal with both Zelensky and Putin, and said he wants the war to end. Daniel Fried, who ran European affairs at the State Department from 2005 to 2009 and is now at the Atlantic Council, told Reuters it was unclear whether Washington is making a lasting shift away from Ukraine, but that the fallout damages prospects for ending the war and encourages Putin to continue it.

Zelensky answered on X. He said Russia is trying to leave millions of Ukrainians without electricity and heating, and that pressure is needed to stop this. His words were written against the sound of the night that followed, one of the largest Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure of the war, covered in a separate story today.

The politics underneath are plain in the reporting. Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries this year have contributed to rising fuel prices, and high gasoline and diesel prices are a political problem for the president ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, in which his party could lose its majorities in Congress. The larger cause of the energy shock, analysts told Reuters, is the American and Israeli war with Iran, which has largely shut the Strait of Hormuz. The waiver does not repeal the law. The tariffs remain on the books, suspended, and the president can activate them later. What changed on Friday is the direction of American pressure, and both Kyiv and Moscow can read it. The picture with this story is an illustration, not a photograph.