No Deal: Russia Refuses Land Exchange with Ukraine
On February 12, 2025, the Kremlin firmly dismissed the notion of exchanging occupied territories with Ukraine as part of any prospective peace agreement. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated, “Russia has never and will never discuss the topic of exchanging its territory.”
This response came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a territorial exchange to help end the ongoing conflict. Zelensky suggested trading Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine for regions in Russia’s Kursk province currently under Ukrainian control. However, Russian officials, including Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, dismissed the proposal as “nonsense.”
The conflict has seen Ukraine capturing approximately 1,300 square kilometers of Russia’s Kursk region last summer, with Russia reclaiming about half of that territory since then. Intense battles continue, particularly around the city of Sudzha in the Kursk region.