- calendar_today August 7, 2025
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday he had a “good” phone 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.
Speaking at the White House alongside Trump and other European leaders, Zelenskyy said that security guarantees remain at the heart of Ukraine’s 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 readiness to extend strong signals of support was “very important” but declined to offer details on what such guarantees might look like.
Trump, too, emphasized the need for security but also suggested that Europe should shoulder most of the responsibility. Trump added that the conflict cannot be solved without having some very tough conversations about territory. “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 White House meeting served to highlight divisions among Western leaders on how to balance their support for Ukraine with the pursuit of a negotiated end to the war. Trump is uniquely open to the idea of Ukraine making territorial concessions, something Zelenskyy has steadfastly rejected.
Talks on Sanctions, Ceasefire, and NATO Access
As leaders in Washington were discussing guarantees, U.S. lawmakers in both parties were sharpening their calls for new economic pressure on Russia and countries that trade with it. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that the Trump administration should more aggressively target Moscow’s finances with tariffs and other pressure tools. He suggested that nations buying Russian oil must feel pressure from Washington not 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 on Fox News. Graham also placed significant blame for the war on China, and in particular, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who he said is the second-most important person on the planet to end the war. Graham said Trump should be pressuring Beijing to withdraw its support for Russia.
Trump has already used tariffs against Russia’s trading partners. In August, Trump announced that he would levy a 50 percent tariff on India in part because of its purchases of Russian oil. Graham said on Fox News that Trump should be threatening similar action against China to change the equation.
The European Union is also expected to announce its 19th round of sanctions against Moscow this month. The new round of sanctions would further squeeze Russia’s energy revenues, banking access, and military-industrial base while closing loopholes that allow sanctions evasion and prevent circumvention. After nearly four years of closely coordinated action by the United States and Europe, Russia has been shamed into the most sanctioned nation in modern history, more isolated economically than Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.
Sanctions aren’t the only source of disagreement. European leaders also pressed Trump on the need for a ceasefire before serious negotiations can resume. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz argued that there must be a temporary halt to the fighting before any peace talks can have any credibility. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire,” Merz said. Trump disagreed, noting that several of the six peace agreements he says he brokered in recent months were without a ceasefire. “You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild,” Trump said, but acknowledged that the primary benefit to a truce would be the immediate halt to civilian casualties.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb also joined the White House talks. Stubb, who was elected to the office in March 2024, has been openly skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to respect a ceasefire and emphasized Finland’s historical experience with Russia and its 800-mile border with the aggressor nation. He has been called one of Trump’s closest European interlocutors. “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,” Stubb said.
Beyond sanctions and a ceasefire, Trump has also been blunt in recent weeks about the conditions for peace. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he urged Ukraine to formally cede Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and to give up its stated 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 wrote. “I think Obama gave them Crimea without shooting one bullet,” Trump continued. “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE,” Trump added, was his red line in any peace talks.
The stark difference between Zelenskyy’s desire for long-term Western guarantees and Trump’s hardline insistence on concessions highlights the deep divides both in Washington and across Europe over how to end the war. With new sanctions in the offing, rising tariff threats, and the continued lack of a battlefield truce, there is little sign of a path forward caught between calls for compromise and solidarity.
