By Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju, Arlette Saenz, Ted Barrett, Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Republican senators are ratcheting up their demands for President Donald Trump to put new sanctions on Russia, as the White House has signaled an openness toward a second phase of sanctions against Moscow.

“I think Russia is playing, they’re really playing us like a piano right now,” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said Wednesday.

“He’s gotten everything he wanted; he’s gotten access to the president, he’s getting a red carpet reception, three weeks later he’s getting a red carpet reception from Xi Jinping and hanging out with Kim Jong Un,” Tillis said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that Putin’s goal is to “string us along.”

The comments from Tillis, the co-chair the Senate NATO Observer Group, come after NATO fighter jets shot down multiple Russian drones that violated Polish airspace during an attack on neighboring Ukraine Wednesday. While a previous sanctions push from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham had seemingly stalled amid a lack of interest from the White House, a growing chorus of party voices are pushing for the president to take a strong stance amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

“I mean, at some point we need to recognize that this guy is plotting to overthrow Western democracy. And I know the way you do that is to undermine the United States of America, then going back to Moscow and ordering air assaults that are the most extensive since the war began,” Tillis said. “That is not somebody who is wanting peace. He wants to string us along and kill and rape and murder more Ukrainians and it’s got to stop.”

Senate Republican leadership, the senator argued, should allow the chamber to vote on Graham’s sanctions package, which was written with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and has broad, bipartisan support. It would allow the president to levy up to a 500% tariff on imports from countries that purchase Russian uranium, gas and oil, and have not contributed to Ukraine’s war effort.

Trump on Wednesday delivered a vague missive on social media following the incursion into Poland, writing on Truth Social: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”

Afterward, Graham addressed Trump directly in a post on X, writing that he agreed with the president’s post and saying: “Mr. President, Congress is with you. We stand ready to pass legislation authorizing bone crushing new sanctions and tariffs that can be deployed at your discretion. Our goal is to empower you as you deal with this mounting threat.”

Previously, Senate Majority Leader John Thune had said leadership was waiting for the green light from the White House, as the administration engaged Russia diplomatically.

Asked whether the overnight strikes could propel him to vote on the bill without first getting the nod from the White House he has repeatedly said he needs, Thune said that “it’s intensified interest in moving on the sanctions bill.”

“I know that there were some technical issues that they were working with the White House to resolve. My team was, Lindsey’s folks were involved in all these conversations,” he said. “There’s a lot of, I would say, discussion now around we need to move so we’ll see.”

Pressed directly on whether he would put the package on the floor, Thune responded: “We’ll see. I need to have a couple conversations before that happens. But our members are very interested, and you know, that was a provocative act, which clearly is, you know, an attempt to test the US and our NATO allies.”

One of those members is North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, who said he’d “love to see [the Russia sanctions package] come up next week, but I would love to have seen it come up last month.”

“The message that I’m receiving from Russia is they’re not interested. And I think it’s time for us to exercise all of our leverage,” he said.

The top Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have similarly urged the administration to take a firmer line on Russian sanctions. “I got a feeling that he’s about had it with Vladimir Putin’s games, and he’s about ready to do something,” Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House panel, said Tuesday.

Trump, Sen. Joni Ernst said, “wants to make sure that he is giving every opportunity for peace to get this war resolved,” but, she warned, “Putin is playing him right now, and I think the president understands that.”

“We need to make sure that we are utilizing the tools in our toolbox to help President Trump negotiate peace on behalf of Ukraine. So let’s move forward with the sanctions bill,” she continued.

But a number of lawmakers defended the president’s hesitancy to move on tougher sanctions.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford argued the US needs to be certain Europe will back US policy on the matter.

“President Trump’s trying to use the tariffs right now to be able to provide leverage. The next piece on that, if that doesn’t work, is the sanctions piece that obviously has a dramatic effect on our economy and other nations’ economies,” he said. “So you got to be wise to be able to do that. I think it’s wise to be able to work as many options as you can before we get to that point.”

Lankford acknowledged, however, that American officials need to ensure they are pushing back against Russian aggression.

“I don’t think this is accidental, that [Putin’s] probing NATO at this point to be able to figure out just how far that he can go. We need to continue to be able to push back against his aggression on this, because he does not want to end the war. He wants the war,” he said.

Sen. John Curtis, meanwhile, said president is in a tough spot as a negotiator, arguing that “if this was easy, President Biden would have done it.”

“It’s difficult, and I’m don’t want to outguess the strategy he’s doing, only to acknowledge we all want him to be successful,” the Utah Republican said.

The president, Tillis said, is not “being naive” in his negotiations with the Kremlin but “genuinely is trying to prevent a confrontation that puts American men and women at risk.” Still, he said, “enough is enough.”

“The president is a is a shrewd negotiator, but on his face, it looks like we’re losing this negotiation,” the Republican said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Casey Riddle contributed to this report.