President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would offer to swap land Ukrainian troops control in Russia’s Kursk region in exchange for a return of Ukrainian territories Russia currently occupies if negotiations took place.
“We will swap one territory for another,” Zelenskiy said in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper published on Tuesday.
Zelenskiy did not specify the Ukrainian territories he would ask for. “I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority,” he added.
Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukrainian territory in the country’s east and south as the full-scale invasion it launched on February 24 approaches its third anniversary.
Ukraine staged a surprise offensive into the Kursk region of western Russia last August and still holds part of the initially captured territory, although its size has dwindled in the course of Russian counter-attacks.
Russia says it downs 40 Ukrainian drones overnight
Kyiv officials say the Kursk operation was meant to protect border regions and that captured land could be used as a bargaining chip in any peace negotiations, whose prospects have risen since Donald Trump returned as U.S. president.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly stressed that any plan to end the war in Ukraine should provide for strong security guarantees from allies to ensure no future Russian aggression is possible.
Trump said on Friday he would probably meet Zelenskiy this week to discuss ending the war. He indicated on Sunday that he had been in contact with Putin, without specifying when. The Kremlin neither confirmed nor denied those contacts.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.