Trump Slams Zelensky For Rejecting Land Swap, Presses Ahead With Alaska Peace Talks
President Donald Trump took aim at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, sharply criticizing the Ukrainian leader’s public dismissal of a potential land swap with Russia — a key element of Trump’s emerging peace proposal to end the years-long conflict.
Speaking from the White House Briefing Room, Trump said he was “very, very severely” opposed to Zelensky’s position and admitted he was “a little bothered” by the Ukrainian president’s insistence that any territorial concessions would require constitutional approval.
“I get along with Zelensky, but I disagree with what he’s done — very, very severely,” Trump said. “This is a war that should have never happened. He’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap? Because there will be some land swapping going on. Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine, some very prime territory. We’re going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine.”
Over the weekend, Zelensky rejected the idea outright, declaring, “Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier” and warning that “any decisions made without Ukraine … will never work.”
The disagreement comes just days before Trump is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, with the aim of negotiating an end to the war. Putin has reportedly floated an offer — relayed through Trump envoy Steve Witkoff — to halt hostilities in exchange for keeping control of the eastern Donbas region, which Russia’s forces largely hold.
Trump has pitched his plan as “some swapping” of territories to the “betterment of both” countries, acknowledging the deal would be complex but insisting it could restore peace. “Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace,” Trump said last week, adding that one of his conditions for meeting with Putin is securing an agreement for direct talks between the two leaders.
Zelensky has not been invited to the Alaska summit, but Trump said his end goal is to bring both men together — with or without himself in the room — to finalize a deal. “At the end of that meeting [with Putin], probably in the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump said Monday. “Ultimately, I’m going to put the two of them in a room, and I think it’ll get solved.”