The Russian government announced on Friday that it would seize U.S. diplomatic properties and kick out a large number of U.S. diplomats, effectively ending hopes for the fresh start with Moscow that President Donald Trump came into office promising to seek.

The action, in response to a sanctions bill passed by Congress, signaled a loss of patience by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the Trump administration’s ability to change the bilateral relationship, as the legislation handcuffs Trump’s power to lift the punitive measures taken by the United States in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Now Trump has a difficult decision to make.

He can veto the law as a signal to Moscow of his continuing interest in rapprochement, while knowing Congress will easily override his action. He can sign the bill, acknowledging that his goal of better relations with Moscow is on ice. Or he could do nothing and simply let the law take effect.

The Russian expulsion order could affect scores or even hundreds of diplomats and other embassy staff — and officials in Moscow had recently indicated that the measure was imminent.

Former President Barack Obama expelled Russian diplomats and ordered the seizure of Russian properties in the United States in the closing weeks of his tenure, in response to the conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election to damage the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and help Trump get elected.

Putin initially declined to respond with tit-for-tat expulsions of his own, a gesture to the president-elect and his pledge as a candidate to try to repair relations with the Kremlin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday that Moscow had no choice but to respond now, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Lavrov cited “a number of hostile steps” taken by the United States but also told Tillerson that Moscow was “ready to normalize the bilateral relations with the U.S. and cooperate on important international issues,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The State Department did not respond to a request to confirm the telephone conversation or its contents. It also did not provide an estimate of how many U.S. personnel would have to depart by the Sept. 1 deadline, but Russia’s order to reduce the number of U.S. diplomatic staff to 455 would appear to affect as many as a few hundred people.

The Senate voted 98-2 for legislation that slaps new penalties on Russia and limits Trump’s ability to lift sanctions already in place. The measure had previously passed the House.

Trump’s aides have given mixed signals about whether the president will sign or veto the Russia legislation, which is packaged with additional sanctions on Iran and North Korea that he supports. Trump advisers have said the legislation imposes unacceptable limits on presidential prerogatives. A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on what Trump might do.

“This does hem in Trump’s political moves,” said Jane Harman, a former California Democratic congresswoman who is now president of the Wilson Center.

Russia has promised additional retaliatory measures against the new sanctions once they become law, possibly targeting U.S. commercial or trade interests.

“This is a landmark moment,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a journalist for the newspaper Kommersant who regularly travels with Putin and has interviewed him extensively over the past 17 years. “His patience has seriously run out, and everything that he’s been putting off in this conflict, he’s now going to do.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok should reduce the number of their “diplomatic and technical employees” to 455, in apparent parity with the number of Russian diplomatic staff in the United States.

The Foreign Ministry also said it would seize, effective Aug. 1, a Moscow warehouse and dacha, or vacation house, used by the U.S. Embassy. The dacha, located in a posh suburb along the Moscow River, was often used by families of embassy workers for vacations or parties.

“The passing of the new bill on sanctions clearly showed that relations with Russia have become a hostage of the internal political struggle in the U.S.,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement laying out the measures. Putin and other officials have denied that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and dismissed the scandal as the creation of Russophobes in Washington.