White House not ruling out Zelensky's participation in Alaska meetings, CNN says
A first-ever trilateral meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska could still be on the table, CNN reported on Aug. 10, citing its sources familiar with the matter.
The report comes after Trump said that he would meet Putin on Aug. 15 in Alaska for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
CNN reported that while Zelensky was not named among the participants of the Alaska summit, the Trump administration has not ruled out some meetings involving Zelensky, according to its sources.
One White House official told CNN that anything with Zelensky's involvement would likely be scheduled after Trump's meeting with Putin.
Zelensky confirmed on Aug. 7 that the discussions were ongoing on a bilateral and trilateral summit, including the three leaders, to end the war. Moscow has confirmed the plans for a meeting between Putin and Trump in the near future, but has not mentioned Zelensky's involvement.
A source in Ukraine's President's Office told the Kyiv Independent that Trump and Putin planned to discuss a peace plan, in which Ukraine would have to withdraw further from two territories partly occupied by Russian troops.
The source, who was part of the team briefed on the discussion Putin had with Witkoff, said that the plan would see Kyiv withdraw its troops from two of the partly occupied Ukrainian regions — Donetsk and Luhansk.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic, said Ukraine would outright reject the plan.
The Putin-Trump meeting is planned a week after Trump's ultimatum on Moscow expired, in which he threatened sweeping secondary tariffs on countries trading with Russia if no ceasefire is agreed by then.
