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Zelensky offers land swaps while Russia Heart Trump with the release of prisoners.
The Ukrainian military of the 24th Mechanized Brigade triggered a 120 mm mortar towards Russian positions in an unleashed place near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine war. (Image: AFP)
The Ukrainian president, Volodmyr Zelensky, said he was ready to exchange land in negotiations with Russia, who released an American prisoner in an administration of President Donald Trump described Tuesday as a gesture of goodwill to end the war.
Zelensky, who will meet on Friday at the Munich Security Conference with the American vice president JD Vance, a vocal critic of US military support to Ukraine, described himself as ready for serious conversations.
“We will change one territory for another,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.
Zelensky, who in the past has refused to give up any territory invaded by Russia, said he was ready to exchange land in the Kursk region of Russia, which Ukraine seized a surprise offensive last year.
He acknowledged that Ukraine could not enjoy security guarantees only with European partners.
“Security guarantees without the United States are not real security guarantees,” he said.
Trump assumed the position of ending war in Ukraine, possibly taking advantage of billions of dollars in American assistance sent by Biden, to force Kyiv to territorial concessions.
In the first known visit of a member of the Trump administration to Russia since he returned to the White House last month, the envoy Steve Witkoff assured Marc Fogel’s release, an American jailed since 2021 for drug positions.
The White House described its release as part of an “exchange”, without offering more details.
The American envoy in charge of the hostages, Adam Boehler, published a photo that seemed to show Fogel savoring a rigid drink in a reaction house, his other hand squeezed both his passport and a plate of food.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a good faith of the Russians and a sign that 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 were no immediate comments from Russia, where state news agencies cited the White House announcement.
The Supreme Court of Russia in December refused to consider an appeal that Fogel made against his 14 -year judgment.
Witkoff, a real estate developer and friend of Trump, is officially the envoy of the Middle East and previously played a key role in promoting a fragile high the fire of Israel-Ahamas.
Trump also announced a visit to Ukraine by the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, another official in his cabinet in a mission not related to his main work.
‘Russian one day’
Trump in a Fox News interview broadcast on Monday that Ukraine “can be Russian one day”, the words quickly received by Moscow.
“The fact that an important part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and has already done so, is a fact,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the annexation of Moscow 2022 of four Ukrainian regions after the referendums widely criticized as fraudulent.
The Ukrainians reacted contempt to Trump’s comments.
“It’s a kind of senile madness,” said Daniil, a resident of kyiv, to AFP.
A Ukrainian soldier in a street in the center of kyiv, who only gave the name of Mykola, said of Trump: “You can think anything and say anything, but Ukraine will never be Russia.”
Trump in the past has expressed admiration for Putin and notoriously supported his denial of the discovery of the intelligence community of the United States of Russian interference in the 2016 electoral victory of the Republicans.
But Trump in recent weeks has also asked Russia to commit, saying that Putin needs to reduce great losses.
Both armies are trying to ensure an advantage on the battlefield before possible conversations.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that its troops had captured the small town of Yasenove in the East Region of Donetsk of Ukraine.
In the northern Ukraine region, regional prosecutors said Russian bombings killed a 40 -year -old man for a 30 -year -old woman.
Last release of prisoners
Former President Joe Biden left the greatest contact with Russia after his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But the intelligence and others still met silently in third countries and negotiated exchanges that freed the most prominent Americans imprisoned by Russia: the basketball player Britney Griner, the journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.
Fogel, 63, taught at the Anglo -American School in Moscow when it was arrested in August 2021 more than 21 grams of cannabis and cannabis oil that supposedly found him at the Moscow airport.
Fogel had been living in Russia since 2012. It was reported that he had been teaching the Russians in their criminal colony.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a FEED – AFP union news agency)
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Washington DC, United States of America (USA)
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