Would three be better than two? While President Trump announced Friday that he’d be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska Aug. 15, word is now coming out of the White House that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may also get an invitation.
According to NBC News, a senior U.S. official and three people briefed on the internal discussions say it is a possibility.
“It’s being discussed,” one of the people briefed on the discussions said. “Everyone is very hopeful that would happen.”
Asked by NBC whether the U.S. had officially invited Zelensky to Alaska, a senior White House official said: “The president remains open to a trilateral summit with both leaders. Right now, the White House is focusing on planning the bilateral meeting requested by President Putin.”
Hope is that Trump can effect a ceasefire or end of the Ukraine-Russia war, as he has with other global conflicts during his second term in office.
If Zelensky were to travel to Alaska, it is not clear if he and Putin would ever be in the same room, one of the people briefed on the discussions said.
Putin has not agreed to a ceasefire but proposed the outlines of an agreement to end the war that would allow Russia to keep large swaths of Ukrainian territory. Zelensky said Saturday that Ukrainians “will not give their land to occupiers.”
Trump Friday spoke of “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” nations.