In an interview with the British daily newspaper The Guardian, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the Ukraine is prepared to consider a territory exchange with Russia in future peace talks and withdraw from the border region of Kursk. The areas he would demand in return remain unclear.
“I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority” Zelensky emphasized.
The Ukrainian president also stressed the need for US support, dismissing the idea that the European Union could provide security guarantees without the United States. “Security guarantees without the US are not real security guarantees” he said and hinted at lucrative contracts for US companies in the reconstruction of Ukraine. “Those who help us rescue the Ukraine will also rebuild it, with their companies, together with Ukrainian companies.” Ukraine has the largest natural resources in Europe, which, in his opinion, is also in the strategic interest of the US to prevent these resources from falling into Russian hands.
“We’re not just talking about security, but also about money. Valuable natural resources, where we can offer our partners opportunities to invest, where it didn’t exist before. For us, it will create jobs, for the American companies, it will bring profits” Zelensky said.
US President Donald Trump is pushing for a rapid end to the war, which is entering its fourth year. In this context, he announced on Tuesday that he will send his special envoy Keith Kellogg to Kiev to work out a proposal for ending the conflict.
On Friday, Zelensky will meet with US Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian president.
The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, criticized the proposal as an attempt to cover up the actual military failures of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Kursk region. “In the Kursk region, the earth is waiting for the neo-Nazis who are wreaking havoc, on a 1×2 meter area and 2.5 meters deep, without an exchange taking place” she wrote on Telegram.