United States President Donald Trump has approved a sanctions bill that could pave the way for tariffs of up to 500% on countries purchasing Russian oil, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Thursday.

This legislation, once passed by the US Congress, will allow Trump to “punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fuelling [Vladimir] Putin’s war machine,” Graham said.

“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivise them” to stop buying Russian oil “that provides the financing for Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine”, the Republican senator said.

The bill could be put to vote in the Congress next week, he said, adding that he is expecting bipartisan support for it.

“This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent,” he added.

The announcement came four days after Graham on Sunday said that he was hoping to introduce the bill, “and it’s from 0 to 500”, indicating the tariff rate the legislation would assign.

“He [Trump] picks the number [tariff rate],” Graham had told reporters. “Nobody else does.”

He had added: “...if you’re buying cheap Russian oil, keeping Putin’s war machine going, we’re trying to give the president the ability [through the bill] to make that a hard choice by tariffs.”

To argue that the tariffs worked as intended, Graham on Sunday quoted the Indian ambassador as having told him in a private conversation that India was buying less Russian oil, and had urged him to request Trump to relax tariffs linked to such imports.

In the presence of Trump, Graham told reporters that to end the conflict in Ukraine, the countries buying Russian oil needed to be pressured.

The senator said that he believes that what Trump “did with India is the chief reason India is now buying substantially less Russian oil”.

The punitive tariffs on India and others had been introduced as part of Trump’s pressure campaign against countries purchasing discounted oil from Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Without a trade deal with Washington, Indian goods are facing a combined US tariff rate of 50%. A 25% so-called reciprocal duty was imposed on August 7, followed by an additional 25% punitive levy on August 27.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that the import of discounted Russian oil by countries, including India, was fuelling Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Reacting to Graham’s comments, Trump told reporters that the US could raise tariffs on India if New Delhi does not cut Russian oil imports.

On Tuesday, Trump repeated his claim that the punitive levies had prompted New Delhi to reduce its imports from Russia.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on the recent remarks made by Graham and Trump. But New Delhi has maintained that ensuring stable energy prices and secure supplies were the goals of India’s energy policy.