White House is considering inviting Zelenskyy to Alaska

WASHINGTON — The White House is considering inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Alaska, where President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week, according to a senior U.S. official and three people briefed on the internal discussions.

“It’s being discussed,” one of the people briefed on the discussions said.

The senior U.S. official and people briefed on the discussions said no visit has been finalized and that it’s unclear whether Zelenskyy would ultimately be in Alaska for meetings.

The senior administration official said it is “absolutely” possible.

“Everyone is very hopeful that would happen,” the official said.

Asked whether the U.S. had officially invited Zelenskyy 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.”

The Ukrainian government did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump announced Friday that he is meeting with Putin on Aug. 15 in Alaska as he tries to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine. The White House had initially made a Putin meeting with Zelenskyy a condition for a meeting between Trump and the Russian president to take place, but Trump later said that was not a precondition.

If Zelenskyy were to travel to Alaska, it is not clear whether he and Putin would ever be in the same room, one of the people briefed on the discussions said.

The surge in diplomacy aimed at ending the war in Ukraine comes after Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow ahead of a deadline on Friday that the president had set for the Russian leader to agree to a ceasefire or face new sanctions.

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. Zelenskyy said defiantly on Saturday that Ukrainians “will not give their land to occupiers.”

Trump said Friday that between Russia and Ukraine, “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.” Zelenskyy and his European allies have said that ceding territory would only encourage Russian aggression.

Administration officials were working on Saturday to try to gain support for a potential ceasefire from the Ukrainian government and European leaders.

In a joint statement on Saturday, European leaders welcomed the Trump-Putin meeting but emphasized the need to keep pressure on Russia and protect the security interests of Ukraine and Europe as a whole.

“We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,” the statement said. “The current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

The statement from the leaders of France, Britain, Italy, Germany, Poland and Finland, as well as European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen, said that meaningful negotiations could take place only in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities and that “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy said Ukraine “values and fully supports” the European leaders’ statement.

“The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the vital security interests of our European nations,” he said Sunday in a post on X.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com