Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready to swap land in negotiations with Russia, which freed at least one US prisoner in what US President Donald Trump described on Tuesday as a goodwill gesture on ending the war.
Zelenskiy has in the past refused to cede any territory after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, in an interview with the Guardian published on Tuesday, he said Kyiv was ready for serious talks ahead of a meeting tomorrow at the Munich Security Conference in Germany with US Vice President J.D. Vance — a vocal critic of US military support to Ukraine.
Photo: AFP
“We will swap one territory for another,” Zelenskiy said, adding that he was ready to trade land in Russia’s Kursk region — which Ukraine seized in a surprise offensive last year.
He acknowledged that Ukraine would not be able to enjoy security guarantees just with European partners.
“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Trump took office vowing to end the war in Ukraine, possibly by leveraging billions of dollars in US assistance sent under former US president Joe Biden, to force Kyiv into territorial concessions.
In the first known visit by a member of the Trump administration to Russia since he returned to the White House last month, envoy Steve Witkoff secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American jailed since 2021 on drug charges.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia,” Trump told reporters of Fogel’s release. “Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”
Trump greeted Fogel at the White House on Tuesday night after Fogel landed back in the US. Trump recounted a meeting with Fogel’s 95-year-old mother at a campaign rally where he promised her to “get him out.”
The White House described his release as part of an “exchange,” with Trump saying that a second detainee would be released yesterday without offering further details.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, where state-run news agencies quoted the White House announcement.
The Russian Supreme Court in December last year refused to consider an appeal Fogel made against his 14-year sentence.
Witkoff, a property developer and friend of Trump, is officially the Middle East envoy and earlier played a key role in pushing forward a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Trump also announced a visit to Ukraine by US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
Earlier in the week, Trump had floated the possibility that Ukraine “may be Russian someday,” words quickly welcomed by Moscow.
“The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and has already, is a fact,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to Moscow’s 2022 annexation of four Ukrainian regions after referendums widely criticized internationally as fraudulent.
Ukrainians reacted with scorn to Trump’s remarks.
“It is some kind of senile insanity,” Kyiv resident Daniil said.
A Ukrainian soldier on a street in central Kyiv, who only gave the name Mykola, said of Trump: “He can think anything and say anything, but Ukraine will never be Russia.”
Trump in the past has voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and notoriously backed his denial of the US intelligence community’s finding of Russian interference in the Republican’s 2016 US presidential election victory.
However, he has also called on Russia to compromise in recent weeks, saying that Putin needs to cut heavy losses.
Both armies are trying to secure an advantage on the battlefield ahead of possible talks.
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