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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Monday that he had a “good” phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump over security guarantees for Ukraine as the war with Russia enters its fourth year.

Zelenskyy met at the White House alongside Trump and European leaders on Monday. He stated that security guarantees for Ukraine were his “priority,” and he is “very happy” Trump and European leaders are in attendance. “Security in Ukraine depends on the United States and European countries,” Zelenskyy told reporters in the Oval Office. He further added that Ukraine was grateful for the “signals” of support coming from Washington were “very important,” but did not directly address what the form of such guarantees would look like.

Trump’s emphasis on the security question was in a similar tune. He appeared to push back against Europe’s readiness to accept concessions in a potential peace deal by stating that Russia’s actions would not be altered until an open discussion about returning territory was at the table. “We are 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.”

Monday’s White House meeting served as a reminder of just how divided Western leaders have become on the path forward in Ukraine—especially between those urging support for Kyiv and those calling for a serious negotiated peace. Trump has been more open to territorial concessions in peace negotiations, while Zelenskyy has remained firm in his opposition to giving up any part of Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

Calls for Sanctions and Ceasefire Intensify as NATO Question Looms

As leaders in Washington called for security guarantees for Ukraine, lawmakers in the U.S. sharpened their calls for economic sanctions. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Trump administration needed to take more aggressive steps toward cutting off Russia’s financial lifelines by targeting countries that still buy Russian oil. Graham is co-sponsoring a bill that would allow Trump to levy tariffs of as much as 500 percent on countries that continue to purchase oil from Russia.

Trump has already demonstrated a willingness to weaponize tariffs. The president announced in August a new 50 percent tariff on India over its Russian oil purchases, which had been lower before Trump’s election. Graham suggested the threat of tariffs of a similar size against China could quickly tip the scales of the war.

On the European side, the E.U. is expected to announce its 19th round of sanctions on Russia later this month. The latest round of sanctions, which is still being finalized by member states, aims to restrict Russia’s energy sector further, limit Russian banks’ access to foreign finance, target defense companies, and close loopholes that have enabled Russia to sidestep sanctions. In the nearly four years since the West began its economic pressure campaign, Russia is now the most sanctioned country in history, outpaced only by North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.

Sanctions are only one area of friction. European leaders also pressed Trump on his willingness to allow Russian forces to continue to attack Ukraine without a formal ceasefire being put in place. The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested that serious negotiations could not even begin until at least a temporary halt to the fighting had taken place.

“It is clear to me that you have to talk to each other if you want to have a ceasefire and bring about a peace agreement,” Merz said. “And I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire.” Trump pushed back, suggesting the last six meetings that were billed as peace negotiations had been held without any ceasefire commitments.

“I’ve had a lot of them without a ceasefire, where they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild and people get killed,” Trump said. “But if you had a ceasefire in place, in my opinion, the first thing that happens is people stop getting killed.”

The Finnish president, Alexander Stub, was also in attendance. The leader, who only took office in March this year, was one of several European leaders in Washington in recent weeks to question Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to hold to a ceasefire. Stubb has been the most vocal, warning that Putin had not held to his end of any agreement in the past. “I am the minister responsible for the eastern border of Finland, which is 800 miles long,” Stubb said. “We have had over 800 years of relationship with Russia,” he added, declining to endorse the pause-for-talks formula. Stubb is also among Trump’s closest interlocutors in Europe, having met in person multiple times since he was elected last year.

The Trump administration has also been blunt about the requirements for a long-term peace. In a post over the weekend on Truth Social, Trump urged Ukraine to formally give up its claim to Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, and to abandon any plan 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. Trump suggested he had “no choice” in his decision to allow Russia to annex Crimea and stated “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE” should be a red line. The strong words by Trump, Zelenskyy, and a host of European leaders have done little to lower the temperature between the sides, with new sanctions on the horizon, tariff threats against China and India likely to grow, and military clashes continuing to take place.