The Japan Times - Zelensky offers land swaps as Russia heartens Trump with prisoner release

Zelensky, who will meet Friday at the Munich Security Conference with US Vice President JD Vance, a vocal critic of US military support to Ukraine, described himself as ready for serious talks.

"We will swap one territory for another," he said in an interview with The Guardian.

Zelensky, who in the past has refused to cede any territory invaded by Russia, said 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 by 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.

The White House described his release as part of an "exchange," without offering further details.

The US envoy in charge of hostages, Adam Boehler, posted a picture that appeared to show Fogel savoring a stiff drink on a jet home, his other hand clasping both his passport and a plate of food.

"President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President's advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine," National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in a statement.

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.

Trump also announced a visit to Ukraine by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent -- another official in his cabinet on a mission unrelated to his primary job.

- 'Russian someday' -

Trump in a Fox News interview aired Monday floated that Ukraine "may be Russian someday," words quickly welcomed by Moscow.

"The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and has already, is a fact," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to Moscow's 2022 annexation of four Ukrainian regions after referendums widely criticized internationally as fraudulent.

Ukrainians reacted with scorn to Trump's remarks.

"It is some kind of senile insanity," Kyiv resident Daniil told AFP.

A Ukrainian soldier on a street in central Kyiv, who only gave the name Mykola, said of Trump: "He can think anything and say anything, but Ukraine will never be Russia."

Trump in the past has voiced admiration for Putin and notoriously backed his denial of the US intelligence community's finding of Russian interference in the Republican's 2016 election victory.

But Trump in recent weeks has also called on Russia to compromise, saying that Putin needs to cut heavy losses.

Both armies are trying to secure an advantage on the battlefield ahead of possible talks.

Russia's defense ministry said Tuesday its troops had captured the small village of Yasenove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

In Ukraine's northern Sumy region, regional prosecutors said Russian bombing killed a 40-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman.

- Latest prisoner release -

Former president Joe Biden shut off most contact with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But intelligence chiefs and others still met quietly in third countries and negotiated swaps that freed the most prominent Americans jailed by Russia -- basketball player Britney Griner, journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.

Fogel, 63, was teaching at the Anglo-American School in Moscow when he was arrested in August 2021 over 21 grams of cannabis and cannabis oil allegedly found with him at the Moscow airport.

Fogel had been living in Russia since 2012. He was reported to have been teaching English to Russians at his penal colony.

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M.Sugiyama--JT