Fresh off brokering a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, President Donald Trump is now focusing his efforts on brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine. In a new development ahead of a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week, Trump announced that the two countries were nearing a deal that could involve some “swapping of territories.”
“You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years,” Trump stated. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”
Trump’s announcement took Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by surprise, who quickly responded in a video posted Saturday morning. Zelensky was adamant about Ukraine’s territorial integrity, stating, “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will retreat from this, and no one can. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
In light of the announcement, reports have emerged that the White House is considering inviting Zelensky to the peace talks in Alaska. NBC News sources revealed that this possibility was being discussed, and there is growing hope that Ukraine will be included in the discussions about its own future.
However, a White House official clarified to NBC, “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.”
Before Trump’s announcement, Zelensky had expressed his readiness for peace talks. On Thursday, Zelensky wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “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.”
In a shift from his earlier stance, Trump reversed his decision to make a meeting between Zelensky and Putin a condition for any further meetings between him and Putin. Last month, Trump had set a deadline of last Friday for Putin to reach a peace deal or face sanctions. Reflecting on the decision to move the deadline forward, Trump remarked, “We thought we had [a deal] settled numerous times, and 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.”