Zelensky offers land swaps as Russia heartens Trump with prisoner release

WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to swap land in negotiations with Russia, which freed at least one American prisoner in what US President Donald Trump described Tuesday as a goodwill gesture on ending the war.

Zelensky has in the past has refused to cede any territory after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But in an interview with The Guardian published Tuesday, he said Kyiv was ready for serious talks ahead of a Friday meeting at the Munich Security Conference with US Vice President JD Vance — a vocal critic of US military support to Ukraine.

“We will swap one territory for another,” Zelensky said, adding that he was ready to trade land in Russia’s Kursk region — which Ukraine seized in a surprise offensive last year.

He acknowledged that Ukraine would not be able to enjoy security guarantees just with European partners.

“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said.

Trump took office vowing to end the war in Ukraine, possibly by leveraging billions of dollars in US assistance sent under former president Joe Biden, to force Kyiv into territorial concessions.

In the first known visit by a member of the Trump administration to Russia since he returned to the White House last month, envoy Steve Witkoff secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American jailed since 2021 on drug charges.

“We were treated very nicely by Russia,” Trump told reporters of Fogel’s release.

“Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”

Trump greeted Fogel at the White House Tuesday night after he landed back in the United States, recounting a meeting with Fogel’s 95-year-old mother at a campaign rally where he promised her to “get him out.”

The White House described his release as part of an “exchange,” with Trump saying Tuesday night that a second detainee would be released Wednesday without offering further details.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, where state-run news agencies quoted the White House announcement.

Russia’s Supreme Court in December refused to consider an appeal Fogel made against his 14-year sentence.

Witkoff, a property developer and friend of Trump, is officially the Middle East envoy and earlier played a key role in pushing forward a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire.