Ukraine Preps Sanctions Wish List for US Under Graham Law

Ukraine is urging the United States to sanction entities that support Russia’s rival to Starlink, and is preparing to present Washington with a broader “wish list” of new Russia sanctions under the sanctions law authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, according to separate reports from Reuters and AP News.

The two reports, published the same day, point to a coordinated Ukrainian push on Capitol Hill and inside the Trump administration to widen the sanctions net on Russia at a moment when Kyiv’s Western-backed leverage over Moscow is otherwise in flux.

What Ukraine is asking for

Reuters reports that Kyiv wants Washington to target entities that support Russia’s answer to Starlink — a satellite-internet alternative Moscow has promoted as it works around Western restrictions on commercial space and communications technology. Reuters does not specify in the summary reviewed by this desk which companies or individuals Ukraine wants named, nor does it detail the current scale or reach of the Russian satellite service in question.

Separately, AP News reports that Ukraine plans to present the US with a full wish list of additional sanctions targets, to be submitted under the sanctions authority created by legislation authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham. Neither report specifies the exact contents of that wish list beyond the Starlink-rival sanctions request, and AP does not report a confirmed date for when Kyiv will formally submit it.

The Graham law context

Graham has spent much of the past year pushing a Russia sanctions bill built around steep secondary tariffs on countries that continue purchasing Russian energy, positioning it as leverage to force Moscow toward a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. Neither Reuters nor AP, in the reporting reviewed here, specifies which provisions of that law Ukraine’s new requests would invoke, or whether the administration has committed to acting on Kyiv’s recommendations.

The timing is notable. This desk reported Monday that the Trump administration has been weighing sanctions relief tied to prisoner releases rather than new punitive measures — a track that runs in the opposite direction from what Kyiv is now requesting. It remains unclear from the reporting available whether Ukraine’s sanctions push is intended to counterbalance that relief track or whether the two processes are proceeding independently inside the administration.

Why satellite communications matter here

Starlink, operated by SpaceX, has played a documented role in Ukrainian military communications since the early stages of the war. A Russian alternative capable of providing similar battlefield connectivity — or of helping Moscow evade Western sanctions on space and telecom technology — would represent a capability gap Kyiv has reason to want closed. Reuters’ report does not detail the operational status of the Russian system or confirm how, or whether, it is currently being used by Russian forces.

The broader sanctions-and-diplomacy backdrop

Ukraine’s sanctions push lands in a week already marked by heightened Russia-NATO rhetoric. This desk reported Tuesday on Russia’s warning to NATO of a possible nuclear response over any blockade of Kaliningrad, and on NATO’s condemnation of Moscow’s nuclear rhetoric tied to intensified strikes on Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also separately described a roughly $150 billion Russian war effort and called out Germany as the weakest link in Kyiv’s Western backing, as this desk reported.

Against that backdrop, Ukraine’s sanctions wish list reads as an attempt to use the Graham law’s economic leverage at a moment when the military and nuclear-rhetoric track between Moscow and the West has grown more tense rather than less.

What remains unconfirmed

Neither Reuters nor AP, in the summaries reviewed by this desk, name the specific entities Ukraine wants sanctioned over the Starlink-rival issue, nor do they report a formal response yet from the White House, the State Department, or Sen. Graham’s office. The full contents of Ukraine’s broader sanctions wish list, and the timeline for submitting it, have also not been detailed in the reporting available as of this writing.

This desk will continue following both the sanctions request and the parallel sanctions-relief deliberations reported earlier this week, and will update as the administration, Congress, or Kyiv provide further detail.