Ukraine is prepared to discuss a land exchange with Russia as part of possible peace negotiations, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview released on Tuesday. He also emphasized that Kyiv cannot sustain its defense without American support.
Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, his spokesperson confirmed to AFP. The meeting comes as Washington continues to press for a resolution to the nearly three-year-long war.
Vance has been a strong opponent of US financial and military aid to Ukraine, despite its critical role in Kyiv’s defense efforts.
“There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” Zelensky told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published on the UK newspaper’s website on Tuesday.
“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said.
Trump has expressed a strong desire for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, though concerns remain in Kyiv over what such a settlement would entail.
In his discussion with the Guardian, Zelensky said he was willing to trade land with Russian President Vladimir Putin, specifically offering a region inside Russia’s Kursk oblast that Ukrainian forces captured six months ago.
“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, but did not clarify which areas Ukraine would demand in exchange.
“I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority,” he said.
Moscow has declared five Ukrainian regions as annexed—Crimea in 2014, and Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporizhzhia in 2022—though Russian forces do not fully control all of them.
US Involvement and Economic Interests
Trump confirmed on Monday that he will soon send his special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Kyiv with a proposal to end the fighting.
While Trump is seeking a quick resolution, Zelensky insists that Ukraine needs firm security commitments from the US as part of any settlement.
Ukrainian officials fear that a weak agreement—one that does not include military backing, such as NATO membership or peacekeeping troops—could give Russia time to regroup for another offensive.
To encourage continued US support, Zelensky has proposed granting American companies major contracts in Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts.
“Those who are helping us to save Ukraine will renovate it, with their businesses together with Ukrainian businesses. All these things we are ready to speak about in detail,” he told the Guardian.
Ukraine is home to some of the largest untapped mineral resources in Europe, and Zelensky warned that allowing Russia to seize them would not align with US economic interests.
“Valuable natural resources where we can offer our partners possibilities that didn’t exist before to invest in them. For us it will create jobs, for American companies it will create profits,” he added.
The Munich conference takes place as Russian forces continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine, particularly in Donetsk. Over the past year, Moscow has captured multiple settlements, many of which have been reduced to ruins by heavy shelling.
