Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly suggested for the first time that Kyiv will give up its battlefield gains in Russia’s Kursk region in exchange for concessions from the Kremlin.
“We will swap one territory for another,” the 47-year-old told the Guardian in an interview published Tuesday.
“I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority.”
The Ukrainian president has previously suggested that the “hot stage” of the almost three-year-old war could end if Ukraine becomes a NATO member or regains nuclear arms — even if Kyiv doesn’t regain all of its territories.
Ukraine caught Russia off-guard this past August when it mounted an offensive into the southern Russian region, at one point controlling as much as 386 square miles of land once held by Moscow.
Ukrainian forces are believed to have made incremental gains in Kursk over recent days through a series of military operations. Control of the region has been seen by military experts as important leverage and a means of forcing the Russians to divert military material away from Ukrainian territory.
President Trump has made clear that he is keen on ending the bloody war, which will mark its third anniversary Feb. 22.
The president revealed plans Tuesday to dispatch Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine later this week and said that he will soon send special envoy Keith Kellogg over there as well.
The White House also announced it had secured the release of Pennsylvanian Marc Fogel, who had been held in a Russian prison since 2021.
It is not immediately clear what concessions Trump made to win Fogel’s freedom.
Trump has also been eyeing Ukraine’s rich mineral resources to help foot the bill for US military aid, while Zelensky has said he is open to making a deal along those lines.
“We are talking not only about security but also about money,” Zelensky told the Guardian. “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.”
Zelensky, who is trying to impress upon his American counterpart that protecting Ukraine is within US interests, claimed that his country has the largest titanium and uranium reserves in Europe and it is “not in the interests of the United States” to see those resources fall into the hands of Russia or other adversaries.
“We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500bn worth of rare earth,” Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier during a weekend interview that aired Monday. “And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
“They may make a deal, they may not make a deal,” the president added of Ukraine. “They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.”
Zelensky has made clear that he wants to see robust security guarantees if representatives from Ukraine sit down with their counterparts from Russia to hash out a deal.
Trump told The Post Friday that he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin recently, but did not disclose any further details.
