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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Monday he had a “good” conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the matter of security guarantees for Ukraine as the war with Russia is headed towards its fourth year.

“I just had a very good talk with President Trump,” Zelenskyy stated in a joint press conference at the White House alongside Trump and European leaders on Monday, after news emerged about a controversial plan for a ceasefire and the exchange of territories in Ukraine.

“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,” he stated, adding that he thanked Trump for the fact that Washington is ready to send strong signals of support. “It is very important,” he added, but he did not go into detail about what these security guarantees might look like.

Trump mirrored the statement about security, but he also made it clear that Europe should do the most part of the work. “We can’t solve it without having the talk of the territory. I think 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 visit and meeting of the Ukrainian president and Western leaders at the White House has shown that there are sharp divisions on how to find a solution for Ukraine while also maintaining a delicate balance between supporting Kiev and working towards a peace deal in Ukraine with negotiations. In contrast to Trump’s views, Zelenskyy is for no concessions as he has repeatedly stated on the Ukrainian sovereignty and international borders.

Sanctions, Ceasefire and NATO

While the leaders in Washington were in discussion about guarantees, the lawmakers on Capitol Hill were in the process of developing their thoughts on imposing economic sanctions on Russia as well as the countries trading with Russia. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Monday the Trump administration should go after nations still buying Russian oil to goad Moscow into ceasing its war in Ukraine. He also has co-sponsored a bill that would empower Trump to levy tariffs as high as 500 percent on countries that 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 told Fox News. He further said the Chinese president Xi Jinping was also a “most important person” to ending the conflict. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China. We’ve got to get China to quit being Putin’s banker and Putin’s chummy,” he added, expressing hopes that Trump would put pressure on Beijing.

Trump has been an advocate of tariffs and he has shown that in action in the past by imposing 50 percent tariff on India. The justification he gave was also because of the Russian oil they were purchasing. Graham suggested a similar move could be replicated with China to change the conflict’s course quickly.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the EU is getting ready to roll out its 19th package of sanctions on Russia. The new round of the punitive measures that would be announced in the coming weeks would target the Kremlin by cutting energy revenues, banking access and the military-industrial complex, and it would also plug some of the remaining loopholes that are enabling some of the sanctions evasion. The bloc is targeting more individuals, companies and ships as part of its continuing attempt to penalize Moscow in the more than three-year-old war. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Western sanctions have cut Russia off from half of its global pre-war goods exports, and Moscow has become the most sanctioned country in modern history, more isolated than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.

Sanctions are not the only issue where European leaders took Trump to the task, as they have also pressed the U.S. president on the need for a ceasefire prior to any serious negotiations. A temporary ceasefire is needed so that peace talks have some form of credibility and would take place, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. Trump does not agree with that view, having in the past pointed out that five out of the six peace agreements that he claims he has brokered since taking office were actually signed without a ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said. He, however, conceded that the main benefit of a ceasefire would be that it would prevent more civilian deaths.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb also took part in the White House meeting. He assumed office in March this year and he has since been skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s real commitment to respecting a ceasefire. He pointed out to his long experience with Russia, including that his country, Finland, has an 800-mile border with Russia. Stubb, who is regarded as one of Trump’s European closest friends, 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.”

The stark difference between Zelenskyy’s request for long term Western guarantees and Trump’s condition of concession from Ukraine’s side has only further underlined the wide divides within Washington and Europe on how the war should end. With sanctions on the cards, new tariff threats and continued fighting on the battlefield, the path to peace is therefore not clear cut but instead is stuck between a compromise and solidarity.