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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on Monday that he had a “good” conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine, as the four-year-long war with Russia has deepened to a new level.

“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. Speaking at the White House alongside Trump and other European leaders, the Ukrainian president stressed that security guarantees remain at the core of Ukraine’s survival and future independence. He added that Washington’s readiness to extend strong signals of support was “very important,” though he offered no further detail on what such guarantees might look like.

Trump also echoed the importance of security, but he suggested that Europe should be expected to shoulder most of the burden. He added that there could be no solution without some hard talk about 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.”

Washington Meeting Highlights Fractures on Ukraine

The White House meeting on Monday highlighted stark divisions among Western leaders over the competing priorities of continuing support for Ukraine and seeking a negotiated peace. Trump’s recent openness to territorial concessions stood in sharp contrast to Zelenskyy’s repeated insistence that Ukraine’s sovereignty and international borders must be preserved.

Sanctions, Ceasefire Debate, and the NATO Question

While world leaders in Washington talked about guarantees, U.S. lawmakers in Washington sharpened their calls for economic pressure on Russia and its trading partners. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., argued that the Trump administration should do more to attack Moscow’s finances by cracking down on the states still purchasing Russian oil. He is co-sponsoring legislation that would allow Trump to impose tariffs of up to 500 percent on states that continue to do 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, held an important influence over Putin. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China,” Graham said, calling on Washington to pressure Beijing to end its support for Moscow.

Trump has already shown a willingness to use tariffs as a weapon. In August, he announced a 50 percent tariff on India, partly in response to its purchases of Russian oil. Graham suggested that threatening the same action against China could rapidly change the dynamic of the conflict.

European Union nations are also preparing to impose their 19th round of sanctions against Russia. The new sanctions are expected later this month and will target remaining aspects of Russia’s energy revenues, banking access, and military-industrial base. Brussels will also implement new measures to close major loopholes in existing sanctions that have allowed Moscow to evade pressure. Following nearly four years of unprecedented, coordinated Western action, Russia is now the most sanctioned nation in modern history. It is more isolated economically than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.

Still, sanctions are not the only point of contention. European leaders also pressed Trump on the need for a ceasefire before negotiations can take place. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz argued that any peace talks would lack credibility unless the warring parties agree to a temporary halt to hostilities. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” Merz said. Trump said he did not think this was true, noting that several of the six peace agreements he claims to have brokered in recent months had been achieved without a ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said, though he conceded the main appeal of a truce would be the immediate cessation of civilian casualties.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who was inaugurated in March 2024, also participated in the White House talks on Monday. He has been openly skeptical about the likelihood of Russian President Vladimir Putin keeping his word on a ceasefire and emphasized that Finland’s 800-mile border with Russia carries the lessons of its long history. Stubb, one of Trump’s closest European interlocutors, said, “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.”

Beyond sanctions and ceasefires, Trump has been more direct about his conditions for peace. In a post on Truth Social, he urged Ukraine to formally give up Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and to drop its ambitions 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 blamed the Obama administration for “giving” Crimea to Russia without resistance more than a decade ago and insisted that “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE” must remain a red line.

The stark contrast between Zelenskyy’s call for long-term Western guarantees and Trump’s insistence on serious concessions highlighted the deep divides in Washington and Europe over how to end the war. With new sanctions on the horizon, rising tariff threats, and continued battlefield clashes, the road to peace is uncertain and caught between demands for compromise and calls for solidarity.