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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday called a conversation he had with U.S. President Donald Trump about security guarantees for Ukraine “good” as the war between the two countries approaches its fourth year.

Zelenskyy, speaking at the White House on Monday with Trump and European leaders, stressed that security guarantees remain at the center of Ukraine’s fight for survival and long-term 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. He added that Washington’s willingness to send strong signals of support was “very important,” but did not elaborate on what such security guarantees could look like.

Trump, for his part, stressed that the conflict can’t be resolved without difficult discussions about territory, but also underlined the importance of security. “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 of world leaders at the White House underscored deep divisions between Western leaders about how to balance a negotiated end to the conflict with continued military and economic support for Ukraine. Trump has been more willing than Zelenskyy and other European leaders to countenance territorial concessions as part of a possible resolution.

Sanctions, Ceasefire, and the NATO Question

While leaders in Washington talked about security guarantees, lawmakers in the U.S. Congress were sharpening calls for economic pressure on Moscow and its trading partners. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Sunday the Trump administration should be more aggressive against Moscow’s finances by targeting countries that continue to buy Russian oil. He is co-sponsoring a bill that would authorize Trump to levy tariffs of up to 500 percent 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. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China,” Graham said, suggesting that Washington needed to turn up the pressure on Beijing to withdraw its support for Putin.

Trump has already shown a willingness to wield tariffs as a weapon of war, having announced a 50 percent tariff on India in August, in part over its continued purchase of Russian oil. Graham suggested the same tactic could be applied to China, and could quickly change the dynamics of the war.

In Europe, the European Union is planning to announce its 19th package of sanctions against Moscow, likely before the end of the month. The new sanctions are to further curtail Russian energy revenues, banking access, and military-industrial base, while also closing loopholes in existing sanctions that have allowed Moscow to evade penalties. After nearly four years of unprecedented coordination on sanctions, Russia is now the most sanctioned country in modern history, more economically isolated than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.

Sanctions are not the only issue that is in dispute, however. European leaders also pressed Trump about the need for a ceasefire before meaningful negotiations can take place. “I don’t see how a meeting could take place without a ceasefire,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “Otherwise, a ceasefire would give a bit of credibility to negotiations.”

Trump, by contrast, said he believed a ceasefire was not necessary, noting that several of the six peace agreements he has claimed to have brokered in the last few months were achieved without a ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said. “What I like about no ceasefire is that the horror of what’s going on is on a stop, and you don’t have people dying.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who was inaugurated in March of this year, also took part in the White House talks. He has been openly skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to respect a ceasefire and emphasized Finland’s experience with the Russian state. “If I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944,” Stubb said. “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 Ukraine, suggesting both on Truth Social and in person that Ukraine must make formal concessions on Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and 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 said in a post on Truth Social. Trump blamed the Obama administration for “giving” Crimea to Russia without resistance more than a decade ago and said he would insist “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE.”

The sharp differences between Zelenskyy’s demand for long-term Western guarantees and Trump’s calls for concessions underlined the deep divides in Washington and Europe over how to end the war. With new EU sanctions on the horizon, rising tariff threats in the U.S. Congress, and continued battlefield fighting, the prospects for peace remain dimmed by both calls for compromise and demands for solidarity.