Zelenskyy Floats Trading Kursk Holdings For Some Russian-Held Ukrainian Territory

Last updated on March 12th, 2025 at 07:55 am

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has floated the possibility turning over a swathe of territory Ukrainian forces hold in Russia’s Kursk region, in exchange for at least some of the territory Russia has seized from Ukraine over the course of more than a decade of conflict between the two nations.

Speaking with The Guardian in an interview published on Feb. 11, Zelenskyy said he envisions a straight trade of land, where “we will swap one territory for another.”

Ukrainian forces first charged into the western Russian border region of Kursk in August.

At the height of their surprise Kursk offensive, the Ukrainian forces had reportedly seized more than 400 square miles of Russian soil. Ukrainian leaders have since suggested holding onto their Kursk gains, to use as a bargaining chip in future negotiations with Russia, but maintaining control of the territory could prove a costly endeavor.

Since August, Russian forces have slowly ground down the Ukrainian assault and occupation force, cutting their Kursk landholdings back to less than 200 square miles. Both sides have reported inflicted tens of thousands of casualties on the other, though exact losses on either side aren’t easily confirmed, and the fighting continues. The Ukrainian side has launched some limited attempts to regain the momentum in the Kursk region, but there have been few clear signs of success.

While Ukrainian forces hold a swathe of the Kursk territory, Russia controls around a fifth of the land within Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders.

Russian forces first gained full control over the Ukrainian land holding of Crimean in February of 2014. The Russian land seizure came amid political upheaval in Ukraine, as opponents of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych drove him from power. Yanukovych was on positive terms with the Russian government, and violent street demonstrations grew against him after he rejected a trade agreement with the European Union in late 2013 and early 2014.

Communities in eastern Ukraine with historic cultural and ethnic ties to Russia sought to secede from Ukraine, under its post-Yanukovych governance. Russia supported these secessionist efforts in eastern Ukraine, as they battled with forces aligned with the new Ukrainian government.

By February of 2022, Russia launched a full scale military assault into Ukraine, and has since declared the annexation of four eastern Ukrainian provinces.

It’s not yet clear which land Zelenskyy proposes to exchange for the portion of the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces still control.

“I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority,” the Ukrainian leader told The Guardian.

It’s also unclear if Zelenskyy would trade on a one to one ratio of Ukrainian-held territory for Russian-held territory, or if his forces would relinquish control over their sections of the Kursk region in exchange for an entire province Ukraine has lost to Russia in the past decade.

The Kremlin has already signaled they’re not interested in Zelenskyy’s pitch.

“Russia has never discussed and will not discuss the topic of exchanging its territory,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Feb. 12.

Peskov said Russian troops remain committed to driving Ukrainian troops out the Kursk region by force.

On the 2024 campaign trail, President Donald Trump signaled an interest in quickly negotiating an end to the war, even at times suggesting he could reach a deal within 24 hours of taking office. So far, the Trump administration is still laying the ground work to open talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaking with reporters at the White House on Feb. 3, Trump raised the prospect of continued U.S. support for Ukraine’s government, in exchange for access to the country’s natural resources, such as rare earth minerals.