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Ahead of his in-person meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump is intensifying efforts to broker a peace deal with Russia by pressuring Ukraine to accept territorial concessions.

Some shit you should know before you read: Russia and Ukraine are on different pages when it comes to the terms required to end the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid out demands, including Ukraine handing over large portions of the Donbas region, officially renouncing any aspirations to join NATO, and drastically reducing its military capabilities as conditions to end the war. On the other side, Ukraine has consistently insisted on full sovereignty over all its internationally recognized territory, including Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Additionally, Kyiv has demanded legally binding security guarantees (similar to NATO’s Article 5) to deter future Russian aggression. To make things more complicated, Ukraine’s constitution explicitly forbids the surrender of its territory, and wartime conditions make amending the constitution impossible.

What’s going on now: In a notable development, President Trump publicly called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “make a deal” with Russia, arguing that “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” during a Fox News appearance. In a Truth Social post the night before the White House summit, Trump added, “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.” These statements, combined with Trump’s abrupt pivot from demanding a ceasefire to now backing a comprehensive peace agreement, have raised fears among the EU that he’s pressuring Ukraine to accept terms heavily favoring Moscow, including territorial concessions.

Zelenskyy, however, has maintained a firm position against giving any Ukrainian land, stating that “we will never leave the Donbas” and insisting that any deal must be designed to prevent future Russian aggression. He has also expressed skepticism over so-called “security guarantees,” referencing past agreements like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that failed to prevent Russian invasions. In a social media post, he warned that any agreement that rewards Putin’s aggression (such as legitimizing Russia’s hold over Crimea or eastern Ukraine) would merely serve as a “springboard for a new attack.”

This all comes as European leaders and Zelenskyy will meet with President Trump at the White House for what could be the most consequential diplomatic gathering since the start of the war. It also follows news from Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who said over the weekend that Russia had agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine if “significant land swaps” were made.