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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Monday that he had a “good” call with U.S. President Donald Trump on the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine, as the war with Russia heads into its fourth year.

Zelenskyy told reporters at the White House that he had spoken to Trump on Monday. “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, flanked by Trump and European leaders.

“We want to stay independent. And only these decisions will guarantee this,” he added. He noted that he also discussed security guarantees with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and European Council President Charles Michel.

Washington’s willingness to provide strong signals of support to Kyiv in the wake of the conflict is “very important,” though Zelenskyy did not elaborate on what a potential package of security guarantees would look like.

Trump, for his part, said that security is very important but that most of the burden must fall on Europe, which he said must have “tough conversations” over territory if a lasting peace is to be forged. “We can’t have peace unless we do that. We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure,” Trump said, before adding: “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 Zelenskyy-Trump White House meeting has shone a light on deep splits among Western leaders on how to strike a balance between continued support for Ukraine and the search for a negotiated settlement. Trump’s apparent openness to territorial swaps stood in stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s repeated statements that Ukraine’s sovereignty and international borders are non-negotiable.

Call for Sanctions, Ceasefire Debate, and NATO Positioning

Trump’s top security officials were discussing security guarantees in the White House as the president met with European leaders. In Washington, U.S. lawmakers were meanwhile intensifying their calls for increased economic pressure on Russia and its trading partners.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on Monday that the Trump administration should target the finances of countries that continue to purchase Russian oil, as part of the effort to increase pressure on Moscow. He is co-sponsoring legislation that would give the president the power to impose tariffs of up to 500 percent on countries that continue to trade 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 singled out China as being in a position of unique influence over Putin. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China,” Graham said, as he called on Washington to pressure Beijing into withdrawing its support for Moscow.

Trump has already demonstrated a willingness to deploy tariffs as an economic weapon against countries trading with Russia, imposing a 50 percent tariff on India in August, in part due to its purchases of Russian oil. Graham said a similar threat against China would have an immediate effect on the trajectory of the war.

In the EU, the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers are finalizing a new sanctions package on Russia that is set to be unveiled later this month. The 19th round of sanctions on Moscow are expected to further restrict Russia’s energy revenues and access to its banking sector and military-industrial base, while also clamping down on enforcement loopholes.

Nearly four years of Western sanctions and enforcement actions against Russia have made it the most sanctioned country in modern history. Moscow has been much more comprehensively cut off from the global economy than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.

Sanctions are not the only potential stumbling block, though, as European leaders on Monday also took aim at Trump over the need for a ceasefire before substantive negotiations can begin. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters at the White House that some temporary break in fighting is required to give peace talks credibility. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” Merz said. Trump said he disagreed, noting that several of the six peace agreements he says he brokered in recent months came without a ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said, while acknowledging that the primary benefit of a truce would be the immediate halt to civilian casualties.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who assumed office in March 2024, also participated in the White House talks. Stubb has expressed skepticism that Russian President Vladimir Putin will respect any ceasefire agreements and noted that the Finnish people have an 800-mile border with Russia and a long experience of relations with its eastern neighbor. Stubb is widely regarded as one of Trump’s closest interlocutors in Europe, and he struck an optimistic note, suggesting that Finland could be a bridge between Moscow and Washington. “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,” he said.