Instead of negotiating peace with President Donald Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is escalating his attacks against innocent Ukrainian civilians. “He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people,” Trump said this week, “I don’t like it at all.”

It is clear that Putin does not want peace; he has to be forced to end the war. To do that, Trump needs greater leverage. Congress can give it to him by passing the Sanctioning Russia Act, a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas).

The bill, which has a whopping 82 co-sponsors in the Senate, would impose “bone-crushing” sanctions on Russia. Right now, Russia is suffering double-digit inflation, skyrocketing interest rates and catastrophic labor shortages. The only thing keeping the country’s economy from collapse is revenue from oil and gas exports. This legislation would shut off the most important source of cash for the Kremlin by barring energy transactions with sanctioned Russian banks (which President Joe Biden allowed to continue), and imposing a 500 percent secondary tariff on any country that purchases Russian-origin uranium, oil, natural gas, petroleum, or petroleum products and petrochemical products. This would give Trump the power to effectively drive Russian energy sales from the global market, which would crush the Russian economy and deny Putin the funds to continue his aggression against Ukraine.

Most important, it would provide Trump with strong bipartisan backing as he tries, one last time, to persuade Putin to stop his massacres of Ukrainian civilians and negotiate a permanent end to his brutal, senseless war.

Signing the bill does not mean Trump has to implement the sanctions immediately. The proposed sanctions take effect only after the president issues a formal determination that Putin is engaging in sanctionable acts as described in the bill, such as “refusing to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine.”

If Trump is not comfortable making that determination, there is another option: He does not have to sign the bill immediately after Congress approves it. Once a bill is sent to the president, he has 10 days to sign or veto it. But nothing requires Congress to send the president a bill it has passed. Indeed, after it is approved in the House and the Senate, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) can hold the bill at the desk indefinitely, rather than sending it to the White House - giving Trump as much time as he needs before signing it.

This would dramatically increase Trump’s leverage with Putin, giving him a sword of Damocles to hang over the Russian leader’s head - backed by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority in Congress. It would empower Trump and strengthen his hand in the negotiations, and it will underscore that the United States is united politically with Trump in backing the approach.

The bill’s passage would make Putin’s choice clear: Agree to peace or suffer the most destructive sanctions ever imposed by the United States - sanctions that would send his already struggling economy into a tailspin.

Indeed, Congress could give Trump even more leverage by adding a provision to the sanctions legislation that would authorize the sale of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, using Foreign Military Financing (FMF) direct loans, like those we provide to our allies and partners around the world. Such loans would cost taxpayers nothing - indeed they would earn a profit, because the loans come with interest that must be paid to the U.S. government.

The combination of sanctions and arms is precisely what Trump promised he would do if Putin did not agree to peace. In March, he declared: “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault. … I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.” And in an interview with me last year at Mar-a-Lago, he said that if Putin refused his peace efforts, he would give Ukraine more weapons than they’ve ever gotten before.

Putin is hoping Trump will grow frustrated with the peace process, throw up his hands and move on to other things - leaving Putin free to prosecute his brutal war without the United States supporting Ukraine or penalizing him. This misperception by Putin is one reason Trump has not been able to persuade Moscow to agree to a ceasefire. Putin appears convinced that all he has to do is sit tight, and the U.S. will reward him by giving him a free hand.

Putin needs to be disabused of this notion.

Trump has been right to give Putin time and make every effort to negotiate a voluntary end to the war. But Putin has made it abundantly clear that he won’t stop his conquest willingly; he needs to be coerced. A bipartisan majority in Congress stands ready to give Trump the tools to coerce Putin, and impose severe consequences on Russia if Putin still refuses. The votes are there. All Trump has to do is give Congress the green light.