‘This is impossible’: Kremlin responds to Zelensky’s proposal to exchange occupied territories

Russia will not discuss a territorial exchange in potential negotiations with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing on Wednesday. His comments came in response to a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who suggested swapping the part of Russia’s Kursk region currently controlled by Ukrainian forces for Ukrainian territory annexed by Moscow.

“This is impossible. Russia has never discussed and will never discuss the exchange of its territory,” Peskov said. “Naturally, Ukrainian units will be driven out of this area. Those who are not destroyed will be expelled.”

A day earlier, in an interview with The Guardian, Zelensky said that if peace talks with Moscow were to take place, Kyiv would “swap one territory for another.” Asked which part of occupied Ukrainian territory he would seek in return, he replied, “I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority.”