Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is proposing a land swap with Russia in potential negotiations for a deal to bring an end to the three-year-long war.
“We will swap one territory for another,” Zelensky said in an interview with The Guardian published Tuesday.
Ukraine has been occupying parts of Russia’s Kursk Oblast after capturing it in a surprise incursion in August. Zelensky said he is unsure what Russian-occupied region he would demand in return. Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine, while Ukraine occupies about 500 square kilometers of Russia.
“I don’t know, we will see,” he said. “But all our territories are important, there is no priority.”
Ending the war in Ukraine is one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities. Trump has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and claims to have made progress in achieving a deal in the weeks since he took office.
Vice President JD Vance is in Europe this week along with other administration officials to meet with allies and Ukrainian officials to discuss plans for ending the war. Vance is scheduled to meet with Zelensky this weekend at the Munich Security Conference. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be present at the conference.
Over the weekend, Trump said he may soon meet with Zelensky — potentially after the Munich Security Conference.
Putin has made several demands for ending the war, including Ukraine abandoning aspirations to join NATO and allowing Russia to have control over four Ukrainian territories: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
During the Guardian interview, Zelensky expressed his concerns over losing American support.
“There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” he said. “Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees.”
To keep U.S. support, Zelensky reportedly offered to give American companies lucrative reconstruction contracts and investment concessions.
In a Fox News interview this week, Trump spoke about the billions Ukraine has received from the United States and the potential for a deal.
“They may make a deal, they may not make a deal, they may be Russian some day, they may not be Russian some day, but we’re gonna have all this money in there and I said I want it back,” Trump said.
Trump also said he is interested in getting $500 billion in rare earth metals from Ukraine. Ukraine has the biggest uranium and titanium reserves in Europe, according to Zelensky.
“I told them [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent of $500 billion worth of rare earth. And they’ve essentially agreed to do that so at least we don’t feel stupid,” Trump said. “I said to them we have to — ‘we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money.’”
