How did Russia respond to Zelensky's words about exchanging territories?

A territorial swap between Moscow and Kiev is impossible, Russia has never discussed and will never discuss a possible exchange of its territories. This was stated by the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov.

This is absolutely impossible. Russia has never discussed and will never discuss the issue of exchanging its territories, Peskov said.

He stressed that Ukrainian forces will definitely be withdrawn from Russian territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with The Guardian that he was ready to exchange the territory controlled by Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region for Ukrainian lands occupied by Russia.

^{Photo: The Guardian}
"We will exchange one territory for another," Zelensky said, adding that it was not yet clear which part of the territory occupied by Russia Ukraine would request.

The Ukrainian leader stressed that all territories are important, and there is no priority between them.

Zelensky also criticized the idea of ​​US President Donald Trump's administration that European countries should provide security guarantees to Ukraine after the war.

"There are opinions that Europe can offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I have always been against this," he said. According to Zelensky, security guarantees without the participation of the United States are "not real."

"We support the peacekeeping contingent, if it is part of the security guarantee, but I would like to emphasize once again that this is impossible without America," Zelensky said, adding that the date of his meeting with Trump has not yet been set.

Commenting on Zelensky's words, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that such statements are being made in order to hide the "true scale of the disaster for the Ukrainian Armed Forces" in the Kursk region.

On August 6, 2024, the Ukrainian army launched a military operation in the Kursk region. By August 12, 28 settlements had come under the control of Ukrainian forces, the acting governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov, reported at the time. In January, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Ukrainian side had captured 1,268 sq. km of the region (the total area of ​​the Kursk region is 29.9 thousand sq. km). By mid-January, according to Russian officials, 801 sq. km (63.2%) had been regained.

Kiev had previously demanded a return to the 1991 borders and the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory. Zelensky later said that the lost territories could be returned through diplomatic channels in the future.

Moscow has insisted that it is open to negotiations, and that Kiev is abandoning them, and is demanding the recognition of four new regions and Crimea as part of Russia. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”