Lindsey Graham Threatens China With 500% Tariff If It Continues Buying 'Cheap Russian Oil' to 'Fuel Putin's War Machine'

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic lawmaker Richard Blumenthal threatened China with a 500% tariff if the nation continues buying "cheap Russian oil."

The senators made their comments outside the Ukrainian president's office in Kyiv after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, CNN reported. Their visit came days after Russia launched its largest aerial attack on Ukraine, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others.

"The game that Putin's been playing is about to change, Graham stated while speaking to press on Friday in a clip circulating on X. "He's gonna be hit and hit hard by the United States when it comes to sanctions."

"China, the game you're playing with Russia is about to change," Graham continued. "If you keep buying cheap Russian oil to fuel Putin's war machine, there'll be a 500% tariff on all of your products coming into the United States," he declared.

Graham and Blumenthal are co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill, supported by 82 senators on both sides of the aisle, that will impose additional sanctions on Russia.

"These sanctions will cripple [Putin's] economy," Blumenthal declared. "He has one resource, and we are gonna throttle that resource," the Connecticut senator continued, adding that Russia is "basically, as one of our colleagues once said, a gas station with nuclear arms."

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill next week, according to Reuters. The legislation would impose sanctions not only on Russia but also on any country purchasing Russian oil, gas, uranium, or other products, with a 500% tariff, CNN reported. To become law, the bill must pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by President Donald Trump.