WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Katie Britt affirmed her belief that the United States should apply “maximum pressure” on Russia through sanctions and did not defend President Donald Trump’s recent diesel deal with Russia in a statement from her office on Monday.
Trump’s agreement, which allows Russia to immediately export more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the United States and the global marketplace, has sparked bipartisan concern that it violates federal law and undercuts efforts to weaken the Russian economy.
The president announced the deal on Friday as he looks to lower diesel prices ahead of the midterm elections. Trump said it would also allow Russia to export 500,000 tons in November, 1 million tons “immediately thereafter” and 3 million tons of diesel fuel within a short time after that.
The agreement diverges from Trump signing sweeping Russia sanctions into law last month meant to restrict the country’s oil and energy revenues by tariffing the largest purchasers of Russian oil.
Britt was one of the key Republican proponents of that legislation, which passed Congress with bipartisan support. Asked by ADN for a response to the president’s actions, Britt’s office said the senator stands behind the new law.
“The Senator believes the United States should continue to apply maximum pressure on Russia to end its unlawful war against Ukraine,” Britt’s office said in a statement to Alabama Daily News. “She was proud to be a leader in passing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, giving this Administration the economic firepower needed to end the war, hold those fueling it accountable, and achieve peace.”
Britt did not go as far as seven bipartisan senators who demanded the president “reverse course” on the deal in a joint statement Sunday.
Those senators include Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah and Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon, all part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
The group argued the agreement with Russia violated a 2022 law that explicitly banned Russian energy imports into the United States to “prevent American dollars from financing Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine.”
“The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians. The Administration must immediately reverse course.”
While not directly calling for Trump to scrap the deal, Britt’s office did not signal any support for the president’s diesel agreement with Russia.
Instead, her office defended sanctions as the best path forward toward crippling Russia’s economy.
“This war has disrupted global commodities, including fuel and fertilizer, leading to higher prices and instability around the world,” Britt’s office said. “She believes the best way to end this senseless war and bring down prices is to stand up to Putin’s aggression by cutting off his war machine.”
In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump stood by his diesel deal with Russia, calling it the “right choice for the American People.”
Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the majority whip, also defended the agreement and Trump’s efforts to bring down diesel costs.
“The president is balancing and has to make tough decisions,” Barrasso said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “He’s balancing his effort to stop and end the war of – Putin’s war in Ukraine, and lowering prices for American families.”
Barrasso did, however, encourage President Trump to implement the sanctions law.
“We passed that law to give the president the flexibility and the firepower to use another tool against Vladimir Putin,” he said. “We want to end this war. We want to get fuel prices down. The president wants that as well. This is just another point of leverage for the president to use against Putin in an effort to get a long-term solution in that- in that part of the world. So, I want him to use it. I voted for that law. The president signed that law. And he needs to use that because he now has the flexibility to do it in the best interest of world peace and lower energy prices here in America.”
Energy price experts told the Associated Press that allowing diesel imports from Russia is unlikely to significantly lower costs.
“If we get diesel from Russia, basically it means that their existing customers are not going to get it and they’ll have to go somewhere else, and that will keep the price basically where it is now,” Michael Lynch, distinguished fellow at Energy Policy Research Foundation, a nonpartisan research institution focused on energy and economics, told the Associated Press.
Britt’s office added that the senator “will continue to work in the Senate and with the Administration to make life more affordable for Alabamians.”
This story has been updated.