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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday described a conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump as “good” regarding security guarantees for Ukraine as the war with Russia nears its fourth year.

At the White House with Trump and European leaders, Zelenskyy said security guarantees remain the central element of Ukraine’s survival and future independence. “The first one is security guarantees. And we are very happy with President [Trump], that all the leaders are here, and security in Ukraine depends on the United States and European countries,” Zelenskyy said. “The readiness of Washington to send strong signals is very important,” he added, though he did not detail the nature of the security guarantees.

Trump mirrored Zelenskyy’s emphasis on security but said most of the burden must fall on Europe. He added that the conflict cannot be solved without “some very difficult talks” regarding the exchange of territory. “We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure,” Trump said. “We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact. That means the war zone, the war line center.”

The meeting highlighted sharp divisions among Western leaders over how to balance supporting Ukraine against offering a negotiated peace. Trump’s willingness to consider territorial changes stood in contrast to Zelenskyy, who has repeatedly said that Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders must be maintained.

Debate Over Sanctions, Ceasefire, and NATO Expansion

While leaders in Washington talked about guarantees, lawmakers in the U.S. sharpened their calls for economic pressure on Russia and its trading partners. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested that the Trump administration should move more aggressively against Moscow’s finances by sanctioning any nation that continues to buy Russian oil. Graham is co-sponsoring legislation that would allow Trump to levy tariffs of up to 500 percent on countries conducting business with Russia.

“My advice to President Trump and [Secretary of State Marco Rubio] is, you’ve got to convince Putin that if this war doesn’t end justly and honorably with Ukraine making concessions also, we’re going to destroy the Russian economy,” Graham said on Fox News. He added that China, in particular, has a large amount of influence on Putin’s actions and calculations. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China,” Graham said, calling on Washington to apply pressure on Beijing to reverse its support.

Trump has already shown willingness to apply tariffs as a cudgel, announcing in August that he would levy a 50 percent tariff on India in part because it purchased Russian oil. Graham suggested that a threat of similar tariffs against China could change the course of the conflict very quickly.

In the EU, ambassadors are preparing the bloc’s 19th round of sanctions against Russia. The package, expected later this month, will aim to further decapitalize the Russian government by cutting off energy revenues, access to banks, and its military-industrial base, while also closing loopholes in the existing measures that are being used to evade sanctions. After nearly four years of unified action, Russia is now the most sanctioned country in modern history—overtaking Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.

Still, sanctions were not the only point of contention. European leaders also urged Trump to agree to a ceasefire before any serious negotiations could begin. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz argued that a temporary truce is needed to give peace talks credibility. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” Merz said. Trump disagreed, pointing to several of the six peace agreements he has brokered in the last few months that were agreed without a ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said, though he also acknowledged that the main appeal of a truce would be a cessation of civilian casualties.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who only took office in March 2024, also attended the White House meeting. Stubb has been openly skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability or willingness to respect a ceasefire and, in comments before the meeting, emphasized the history of Russian incursions into Finland, noting the Nordic country’s 800-mile border with Russia. Stubb is also one of Trump’s closest European interlocutors. “If I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944, and I’m sure that we’ll be able to find a solution in 2025 to end Russia’s war of aggression,” Stubb said.

Beyond sanctions and a potential ceasefire, Trump has been blunt about his terms for a peace agreement. In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged Ukraine to formally give up Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and also to abandon its plans to join NATO. “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote. He also blamed the Obama administration for “giving” Crimea to Russia without any resistance more than a decade ago and insisted that “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE” was a red line that must be maintained.

The contrast between Zelenskyy’s push for long-term Western guarantees and Trump’s demand for concessions highlighted the deep divides in Washington and Europe over how to end the war. With new sanctions in the offing, rising tariff threats, and battlefield clashes continuing to pick up, the path to peace appears caught between pressure to compromise and calls for solidarity.