Kremlin rules out trading land with Zelensky

Russia will never consider giving up any of its territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said in response to a proposal by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week.

In an interview with The Guardian, Zelensky stated that he intends to use the land captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Region last August as leverage in negotiations with Moscow. He admitted, however, that he is unsure which former Ukrainian territories he would seek in exchange.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Peskov dismissed the possibility of a land exchange with Kiev, insisting that such a scenario is “impossible.”

“Russia has never discussed and will never discuss the issue of exchanging its territory,” the spokesman said, adding that Russia will instead work to remove Kiev’s forces from its land. “Of course, Ukrainian units will be expelled from [Russian] territory. All those who are not destroyed will be expelled,” Peskov stated.

Zelensky’s proposal has also been ridiculed by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who stated in a social media post that the only land that “Neonazis rampaging in Kursk Region” will receive is a grave plot.

She also suggested that the Ukrainian leader’s remarks were merely an attempt to distract from the failures his forces continue to suffer on the battlefield

According to the latest estimates by Russia’s Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian military has suffered nearly 60,000 casualties in Kursk and has reportedly lost more than half of the territory it gained during its initial advance into the region in August. 

Moscow has accused Kiev’s forces of trying to destroy evidence of the alleged war crimes they committed in captured Kursk settlements. Investigators have claimed that Ukrainian troops raped, tortured, and murdered Russian civilians in the recently liberated village of Russkoye Porechnoye. Similar atrocities may have been committed by enemy forces in other villages in Kursk Region, according to senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik, who has been tasked by the Foreign Ministry with collecting evidence of alleged Ukrainian war crimes. 

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Region has also repeatedly been condemned by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has stated that the move significantly diminished the likelihood of negotiations, suggesting there is nothing to discuss with people who deliberately target civilians.