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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he and U.S. President Donald Trump had a “good” conversation on security guarantees for Ukraine as Russia’s war on his country enters its fourth year.

“I spoke with President Trump on the phone, and it was a good conversation, of course, because the first subject for discussion is security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said in comments carried by the news agency AFP as he addressed a group of European leaders on Monday. He said the security guarantees were “the core” of his country’s survival and future independence. “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 added. He also stressed that an announcement from Washington indicating its readiness to “send strong signals” was “very important.” He did not specify what guarantees the country wants from the U.S. and its European allies.

Trump, in comments following Zelenskyy’s address at the White House, repeated the emphasis on security but said that Europe must carry most of the burden and that territory would need to be discussed. The U.S. leader said a solution to the war in Ukraine could not be found “unless we talk about territories.” “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 meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump brought into stark relief significant divisions between Western leaders on how to approach a negotiated peace in Ukraine. Trump has raised the idea of territorial concessions even as Zelenskyy has remained steadfast in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands and repeated that Ukraine will not give up its sovereignty or territorial integrity.

Sanctions, Ceasefire Calls, and NATO

Leaders in Washington have been discussing guarantees on the European side of the Atlantic even as U.S. lawmakers are raising the prospect of increasing economic sanctions on Russia and its trading partners. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, suggested the administration could do more to cut Russia off from the global financial system by targeting countries that continue to buy Russian oil. Graham is co-sponsoring a bill that would give Trump the authority to impose tariffs of up to 500 percent on countries that keep doing business with Russia.

“I want Putin to know, 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 with Fox News. He also blamed China for not having taken harder steps against Moscow, a point Trump has also been raising in recent days. “The second most important person on the planet to end this war is President Xi in China. They have more leverage than anybody,” Graham said, describing China as “bankrolling Putin.”

Trump has shown a willingness to follow through on tariff threats in the past and, in August, announced he would impose a 50 percent tariff on India, partly because of the country’s purchases of Russian oil. Graham said a similar threat to China, a far bigger importer of Russian energy, would also work to alter the war’s trajectory. “I think a tariff threat to China, I think, would move it very, very quickly,” he said.

The European Union is also expected to announce new sanctions on Russia this month. Its 19th round of economic penalties is expected to further restrict Russia’s energy exports, tighten banking and investment restrictions, and shut more loopholes for evasion of sanctions. Since 2014, when the West began taking a coordinated approach to isolate Russia, Moscow has become the most sanctioned country in modern history, more ostracized than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.

Sanctions, however, are not the only point of contention for European leaders. Several have also called on Trump to use his influence to pressure Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire before real negotiations can take place. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that before getting back to the negotiating table, a temporary truce on the battlefield was needed to give peace efforts a “reality check.” “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” he said.

Beyond sanctions and a ceasefire, Trump has also been blunt about the other concessions he would require for a durable peace between Ukraine and Russia. In a post published to his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, he called on Zelenskyy to officially cede Crimea to Russia, which annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014. Trump also repeated a past demand for Kyiv to forgo its membership in the NATO military alliance.

“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. No real matter in my opinion,” he wrote. The former president wrote that the Obama administration “gave” Crimea to Putin without putting up a fight over a decade ago. “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE” must be a red line, he added.

The gulf between Zelenskyy’s requests for long-term Western security guarantees and Trump’s demands for concessions from Ukraine stood in sharp contrast to the divisions in Washington and Europe over how best to end the war. The timing of new EU sanctions later this month, threats of new tariffs, and continuing battlefield violence mean the fight for peace in Ukraine could be long and caught between compromise and solidarity.