US Congressman on pressuring Trump, sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine

Vindman is a Democratic congressman and one of Ukraine’s advocates in the US House of Representatives. Vindman was born in Kyiv in 1975, but he didn’t live there for long – when he was four years old, his father emigrated to the United States with his children. Vindman grew up there, built a military career, and later moved into public service at the US National Security Council.

This is Congressman Vindman’s first big interview in Ukraine and about Ukraine. We spoke on the sidelines of the annual Yalta European Strategy meeting, organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which was attended by a large congressional delegation.

Will the US House of Representatives pass the Lindsey Graham bill, which would create new sanctions tools to pressure Russia? And could US policy change if Democrats are highly likely to regain the majority in Congress? Read more in the interview: Trump is very transactional. If we win Congress, he’ll have to deal with us on Ukraine": an interview with Rep. Vindman.

I hope that the Russia sanctions package bill will hit the floor next week. It has not been noticed yet, but the package, now named in honour of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, is a serious sanctions package – probably the most serious sanctions package, if passed and implemented the way that Congress intends it, on Russia since the major phase of the war began.

We have a very short window of time between now and election day to have a session of the House. It's possible that it could be on the floor of the House next week. But even if it's not, then it could still come up between the election and the end of Congress before the next Congress takes effect.

There's still overwhelming bipartisan – frankly, non-partisan – support for Ukraine among the American people. There are some unique issues to this bill that are complications.

A lot of them relate to tariffs and how the president has used tariffs during the first 20 months of his career. That has caused, you know, prices of goods in the United States to increase. And that has been contrary to the will of Congress.

A lot of the problems are based on lack of trust. There's a lack of trust between Democrats, certainly, and the president. That's where this stems from.

There are some concerns about it in the House, but I think that you're still going to have a vigorous discussion. You're going to have people like myself that are advocating for the passage of this bill, because ultimately it is about supporting Ukraine to me.

But even if it's not, then it could still come up between the election and the end of Congress before the next Congress takes effect.

Ultimately, the reason why I am certain that the bipartisan support will continue is because Ukraine is on the right side of history. It's as simple as that.

I think that some of the policies of this administration are not consistent with our values, our historic values. It's true related to the way we treat immigrants and people that have lived in our country for extended periods of time.

But that is a temporary political situation that within 54 days could be very easily remedied. We got ourselves into a situation with an election, and we're going to get out of this situation with an election.

If the Democrats had power, then we would have the gavels, which means that we would have the ability to call hearings, that we would have subpoena power, and ultimately the power of Congress is the power of the purse. It means we would be able to allocate the budget.

And if we win both the House and the Senate, obviously, that will be even more significant pressure.

And the one thing that I've seen personally from this administration is that the president is very transactional. So when we have the power in Congress, he will negotiate with us.

I can tell you one thing for sure: that if the status quo remains, it is bad for Ukraine and it's bad for our allies.

NATO is the greatest, most significant alliance in history. A sort of re-dedication to that alliance is going to be very important.

Including maintaining a presence in Europe. And that's a bipartisan issue.

It was a historic moment because it changed the way people thought about the nature of warfare going forward. And the Ukrainian people were capable of doing that once.

That level of audacity, resilience, innovation, and making sure that you continue to have faith in your own abilities, is critically important.

Anytime you have a corruption narrative that is taking hold, and then the American people and us as elected representatives don't have a feeling like our efforts and the money that we're applying is being used in the best way possible, the least corrupt way, that would be problematic.

I think this is an area for improvement.