CNN Military Analyst Warns U.S. Must Attend Zelensky-Putin Meeting to Prevent Ukraine President’s Assassination

CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton, warned that President Donald Trump must attend future Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks in order to prevent Volodymyr Zelensky from being assassinated.

At a White House meeting on Monday with Ukraine’s president and seven European leaders, Trump offered to attend a meeting between Zelensky and Putin if they wanted him to be there. Zelensky indicated that he would “definitely” want Trump there.

Leighton explained on CNN that it would be “essential” for Trump to attend such a meeting because Putin doesn’t recognize Ukraine as a legitimate country or Zelensky as a legitimate head of state.

“Even if Trump doesn’t want to be there, he has an obligation to be there basically because he’s in a position now where he’s basically the one, along with the Europeans, that can protect Zelensky,” Leighton said, continuing:

I mean, basically, if there was a one-on-one meeting between Zelensky and Putin, Putin would probably want to eliminate Zelensky one way or the other. And that’s the kind of thing that you actually have to consider in this situation.

There have been several assassination attempts against Zelensky. Putin would not stop at that. And it would be one of those things where it would be very critical for the U.S. to have a hand in this, to make sure that any type of process becomes a fair process so that the Ukrainians can really, not only maintain their sovereignty, but maintain their system of government and maintain their leadership.

Trump walked away from last week’s Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin without achieving a ceasefire agreement. Trump then placed a call to Zelensky about coming to Washington, and Zelensky brought along the European leaders for support.

The Ukrainian leader’s last Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance ended poorly, with the Ukrainian president being asked to leave the White House.

Watch the clip above via CNN.