President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a bold last-minute move: inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sit across the table from Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week — a potential three-way showdown that could decide the fate of Ukraine’s future.
Fresh from brokering a surprise peace accord between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Trump is turning his attention to the war that has gripped Eastern Europe for more than three years. The president announced Friday that negotiations with Putin were “very close” to producing a deal — one that could involve “swapping of territories.”
“You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years,” Trump told reporters. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”
That remark instantly triggered a fierce response from Kyiv. Zelensky, speaking in a Saturday morning video address, warned that Ukraine’s sovereignty was not up for trade.
“The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine,” Zelensky declared. “No one will retreat from this and no one can. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
Inside the White House Debate
Sources told NBC News the White House is now “actively discussing” whether to invite Zelensky to the Alaska summit, which until now was planned as a one-on-one between Trump and Putin.
One senior administration official said the president is “open to a trilateral summit,” but cautioned that, for now, preparations remain focused on the bilateral meeting “requested by President Putin.”
If Zelensky attends, it would mark the first face-to-face meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Trump’s Pressure Campaign on Putin
This latest diplomatic push comes after Trump moved up a deadline for Putin to strike a peace deal. Originally set for September 3, the president advanced the cutoff to last Friday, warning of fresh U.S. sanctions if Russia refused to compromise.
“We thought we had [a deal] settled numerous times,” Trump said last week. “Then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street. And I say, ‘That’s not the way to do it.’”
The president’s shift in tactics — including a willingness to sidestep earlier demands that Putin meet with Zelensky first — is being seen as an effort to speed negotiations and cement a historic foreign policy win ahead of his re-election campaign.
A High-Stakes Alaska Meeting
The planned summit, expected to take place in Anchorage, is logistically symbolic: halfway between Washington and Moscow, but on American soil. The choice of location also reflects Trump’s effort to project U.S. strength while offering Putin a setting outside the glare of European capitals.
Zelensky, for his part, has been signaling cautious openness to talks. In a post to X last week, he wrote:
“Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war. Thank you to everyone who is helping.”
Whether he will be offered — or accept — a seat at the table in Alaska remains to be seen. But if the invitation comes, the summit could turn into one of the most dramatic diplomatic encounters of the decade, with the world watching as three presidents wrestle over war, borders, and the future of Europe.
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not trump’s to give!!