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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he had a “good” conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump about security guarantees for Ukraine as the war with Russia enters its fourth year.

Zelenskyy, who spoke at the White House alongside Trump and European leaders, noted that security guarantees remain at the heart of Ukraine’s struggle for 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 the U.S. to give very strong signals in this regard is very important,” he added, though he did not go into specifics of what such a guarantee would look like.

Trump, for his part, echoed the call for security but said Europe must pay most of the cost, and that the conflict could not be solved without difficult discussions on territory. “We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure,” he 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 between the leaders underscored a sharp split between Western leaders over how to balance the immediate needs of Ukraine with the long-term goal of reaching a negotiated peace. Trump’s comments on territorial concessions appeared to contradict Zelenskyy’s repeated statement that Ukraine will never give up its sovereignty or international borders.

Sanctions, Ceasefire Debate, and the NATO Question

In Washington, leaders were also discussing specific security guarantees as lawmakers ratcheted up calls for economic pressure on Russia and its trading partners. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Trump administration should more aggressively target Moscow’s financial networks by sanctioning countries that continue to buy Russian oil. He is also co-sponsoring a bill that would allow Trump to impose as much as 500 percent tariffs on countries 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 in an interview on Fox News. He added that China, in particular, holds more power to sway Putin’s decision-making. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China,” Graham said. He called for Washington to put more pressure on Beijing to end its support of Russia.

Trump has already shown a willingness to use tariffs as a blunt economic weapon, announcing a 50 percent tariff on India in August, in part over its Russian oil purchases. Graham suggested that threatening similar action on China could change the course of the war in short order.

Meanwhile, the European Union was preparing a new round of sanctions on Russia. The bloc will roll out its 19th package of penalties against Moscow later this month. The measures will target Russian energy revenues, banking access, and military-industrial base, as well as close some sanctions evasion loopholes that Russia and its partners have been exploiting. After nearly four years of coordinated Western action, Russia is now the most sanctioned nation in modern history, even more isolated than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.

Still, sanctions are not the only issue. European leaders also took aim at Trump on the need for a ceasefire before meaningful negotiations can begin. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pushed back against Trump’s argument that ceasefires have been brokered with no corresponding peace. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” Merz said. Trump shot back, however, pointing out that several of the six agreements he said he brokered in the last several months came with no ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said. The former president conceded that the main benefit of a ceasefire is stopping civilian casualties.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who took office this March, also attended the White House talks. He has been more skeptical than most European leaders about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s appetite for a ceasefire and noted that Finland had more territory taken by Russia in World War II than any other country in Europe. The Finnish leader, one of Trump’s closest European interlocutors, emphasized his country’s 800-mile-long shared border with Russia when noting Finland’s experience. “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 ceasefire questions, Trump has been fairly direct about his conditions for peace. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Ukraine should formally give up Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and drop its NATO membership ambitions to reach peace with Moscow. “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 went on to blame former President Barack Obama for “giving” Crimea to Russia without a fight more than a decade ago, and insisted that “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE” must be a red line for the U.S.

The sharp divide between Zelenskyy’s plea for long-term Western guarantees and Trump’s focus on concessions underscored deep divides in Washington and Europe on how to bring an end to the war. With new sanctions in the offing, rising tariff threats, and continuing battlefield fighting, the path to peace remains in question caught between competing demands for compromise and solidarity.