ISTANBUL

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed three bills Wednesday targeting Russia and China for the Ukraine war.

"We're very excited that in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning, we passed out the first three bills that address Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine," Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told reporters alongside Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

The first bill "would declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism because of their kidnapping of Ukrainian children," said Shaheen.

The second "would allow us to move forward, using their repossessed assets from Russia to support Ukraine in this war."

The third bill targets China to stop their support for the war, she added.

- Bipartisan support

"All of those bills passed unanimously out of committee have strong bipartisan support, and we look forward to getting them to the floor soon," said Shaheen.

The sanctions are all but certain to rapidly clear the Senate when and if it is introduced in the chamber. It currently has 85 co-sponsors in the 100-member body.

The committee meeting came ahead of Rutte's meeting with US President Donald Trump.

A White House official said Tuesday that plans for a second summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were put on hold after a "productive" call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

On Oct. 16, following a call with Putin, Trump announced plans to meet the Russian president in Hungary within two weeks.

The decision to hold the summit in Budapest was made by the Russian and American presidents, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.