White House Considers Inviting Zelensky to "Alaska Summit" as Trump Proposes Land Swap

The White House is considering inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Alaska, where President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15. The news was reported by NBC on Saturday, citing a senior U.S. official and three people familiar with the internal discussions.

According to a White House official, Trump is "open to holding a trilateral summit in Alaska with Putin and Zelensky," though current planning is focused on a bilateral meeting at Putin's request. This development follows Trump's announcement on Friday that he would meet Putin in Alaska, proposing an agreement that would involve a "land swap to improve the situation for both."

From the Kremlin's side, official Yuri Ushakov stated that "Russia and the United States are close neighbors and share a border," adding that "it makes perfect sense for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait and for the important and long-awaited summit between the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska." Ushakov explained that the two presidents would focus on "discussing options to achieve a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis." The Kremlin also revealed it has invited Trump to visit Russia after the summit.

Bloomberg reported that Washington and Moscow are seeking a deal to end the war in Ukraine, which would solidify Russia's control over the territories it has seized in exchange for a halt to its offensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Putin has demanded control of four Ukrainian regions (Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson), in addition to the Crimean Peninsula, which he annexed in 2014. Ukraine has previously expressed its willingness to be flexible in its efforts to end the war.