The Blubber

Ukraine is prepared to negotiate a territorial swap with Russia as part of potential peace talks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published Tuesday, while stressing that Europe alone cannot sustain Kyiv’s war effort without U.S. support.

Zelensky is scheduled to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, according to his spokesman. The meeting comes as Washington pushes for an end to the nearly three-year war between Ukraine and Russia. Vance, a vocal critic of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, has questioned the level of American involvement in the conflict.

"There are those who believe Europe could offer security guarantees without the United States, and I always say no," Zelensky told The Guardian. "Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees."

Territorial Swap Proposal
In a surprising move, Zelensky suggested a possible exchange of territory with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He mentioned offering land that Ukraine captured in Russia’s Kursk region six months ago in exchange for other territories.

"We’ll swap one territory for another," Zelensky said, without specifying which territories Ukraine would demand in return. "I don’t know which yet—we’ll see. But all our territories are important; there is no hierarchy."

Russia claims to have annexed five Ukrainian regions—Crimea in 2014, followed by Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia in 2022—although Moscow does not fully control all of them.

US Push for Peace Deal
President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he will send his special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Ukraine to draft a proposal for ending the conflict. Trump is urging a quick resolution, but Zelensky insists that any agreement must include firm security guarantees from Washington.

Kyiv is particularly concerned that a settlement without concrete military commitments—such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping forces—would simply give Russia time to regroup and launch another offensive.

"Without strong guarantees, any deal could be a temporary pause for the Kremlin to rearm," a Ukrainian official close to the negotiations warned.