As Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine continue to escalate and with Vladimir Putin showing no willingness to engage in ceasefire negotiations, a bill championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham that would directly target the foremost buyers of Russian energy and potentially cripple Putin’s war machine is picking up steam.

Moscow’s brazenness was highlighted over the weekend when a Russian drone struck a railway station near Ukraine’s border with Poland, which narrowly missed foreign visitors including former CIA Director David Petraeus. European officials decried the attack as an assault not only on Ukrainian civilians but on the West’s alliance with Kyiv, as incidents of drone incursions into neighboring NATO countries have continued to expand.

Experts who have seen firsthand what conditions are like on the ground in Ukraine say that the Putin regime is not only expanding the war to encompass any and all civilian infrastructure, but is also engaging in perhaps even more sinister activity: attempting to erase the Ukrainian culture.

“Every night we received ballistic missile mortar shells that came in. It would shake the windows,” recalled Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” who made an unofficial visit to the Ukrainian front lines last month. “They were targeting not just military, but also civilians and civilian infrastructure there. … I [also] visited the children there. As you know, 20,000 reportedly — I think it’s probably 100,000 — children have been abducted by Russia, indoctrinated in Russia against their own country. Some of these children [were] actually sent to the front lines to fight against their own country. That was one of the saddest things I witnessed as I visited children that had just returned, who have been indoctrinated by the Russians. … [T]his is a moral crisis that requires moral courage, and I think we as Christians need to live the message of Christ.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, who also recently returned from a visit to Ukraine, concurred, adding that the Putin regime is also persecuting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “[T]hey’re closing down the churches, except the Russian Orthodox Church. They’re exiling the pastors, and they’re turning the churches into police stations and military outposts. And this is a form of … cultural genocide that they’re engaged in, and America needs to speak very clearly about that.”

McCaul, a chairman emeritus of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, went on to highlight the need for Congress to pass the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, of which he is the lead sponsor of the House version.

“It’s necessary because even though Ukraine has advanced in their drone technologies, we are no longer providing military support or economic support,” he explained. “This would impact Russia’s economy directly and its ability to continue prosecuting this unjust — and I think criminal — war against Ukraine. … [T]his [not only] targets Putin himself [and] his leadership, [but] also the top five importers of Russian energy [with a] 100% tariff. … [It would target] these unmarked ships that they call ‘ghost fleets’ where they don’t have the Russian flag, but they’re sending out Russian energy. So this would really bleed their economic supply to fund this war crime that is taking place.”

McCaul further underscored the importance of the secondary sanctions in targeting the U.S.’s foremost adversaries, China and Iran. “They won’t cost the American taxpayer a dime. It will impact China very heavily, especially right before President Xi’s meeting with President Trump later this month. It will [also] impact Iran — in this bill is a reauthorization of the Iranian sanctions. … Russia and China are supporting Iran in this current conflict we’re in, so it will impact their ability to prosecute that conflict.”

International human rights advocates are also supporting the legislation. On Tuesday, Oleksandra Matviichuk and Masih Alinejad penned a joint op-ed in The Washington Post imploring the House to act on the bill named after Graham, who visited Ukraine to champion their fight for freedom shortly before passing away unexpectedly in July. The Senate version easily passed 86-11.

“The bill deserves bipartisan support because it will cut off financing for the Russian industries that fund the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, while extending a narrow, long-standing provision targeting the brutal Iranian regime,” they point out. “If enacted, both of these policies will save Ukrainian and Iranian lives.”

Amid the Trump administration’s mixed signals toward NATO allies in recent months, Perkins emphasized that passing the legislation would help to shore up the U.S.’s commitment to support freedom in the West and stay true to Christian principles.

“I also think it’s important to take these types of steps to reassure our allies in Europe that we’re not going to back away from our commitments to help, and we committed years ago to help Ukraine, and so we have an obligation to follow through on that,” he noted. “Promises made should be promises kept. That’s a part of the Christian ethic that governs and guides our nation.”