This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says it’s “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine’s borders to return to their pre-2014 positions after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv could offer Moscow territory seized by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region in exchange for land occupied by Russia.
Hegseth, on his first foreign trip since being confirmed, told a meeting of Ukraine’s military allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels on February 12 that Washington would not deploy troops to Ukraine in any agreed peace deal and that NATO membership is not seen by the White House as part of the solution to the conflict.
He added that U.S. forces would not be part of any security guarantee in a peace settlement.
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth said in the most direct public statement so far by a U.S. official on how President Donald Trump will approach ending the almost three-year-old war.
“To be clear as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine,” Hegseth told a group of some 50 member countries who have been supporting Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Hegseth’s comments came after Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper that Ukraine was willing to “exchange one territory for another,” though he did not know what territory Kyiv would request from Moscow in exchange for part of the Kursk region Ukrainian forces currently control.
“I don’t know, we’ll see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority here,” Zelenskyy said in the interview published on February 11. In the past he has refused to give up any territory taken by Russia during the invasion.
Asked about Zelenskyy’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a move is “impossible.”
“Russia has never discussed and will not discuss the exchange of its territory,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his troops will eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk, but has declined to put a timeline on when he sees this happening.
Ukrainian political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko told RFE/RL that he believes a territorial swap is possible, with the most likely scenario involving a mutual withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Kursk and Russian troops from Kharkiv.
“Unlike other occupied regions, Kharkiv has not been annexed. This makes a withdrawal there more likely,” Fesenko said.
Zelenskyy, who will meet on February 14 at the Munich Security Conference with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and other U.S. officials, described himself as ready for serious talks.
“I think it’s very important for us to meet with the American side before they meet with the Russian side because the war is on our soil,” Zelenskyy said.
The interview was published as the White House announced that Moscow had released American teacher Marc Fogel, who had been deemed wrongfully detained by Moscow, and just hours ahead of another deadly Russian missile strike on Kyiv.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the missiles hit in the early hours of February 12 after authorities issued a ballistic alert and at least one person was killed and four others wounded.
“Russia carried out a missile strike on Kyiv and the Kyiv region,” Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskyy’s office, said on Telegram. “This is how [Russian President Vladimir Putin] wants the war to end.”
Emergency services were called to at least four districts of the Ukrainian capital, and the military administration said that fires broke out at several residential and nonresidential buildings.
Strikes in the Sumy region on February 11 killed at least two civilians, injured two others, and caused widespread damage to apartment buildings and other property, the press service of the regional military administration said.
The White House described the release of Fogel as a “good faith” sign by Russia that could help advance the prospects for peace negotiations to end the full-scale war launched by Russia nearly three years ago.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been skeptical about continuing U.S. support for Kyiv, is pushing for a settlement of the war and has increased diplomatic efforts in recent days. His envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, will also attend the Munich Security Conference and will travel to Ukraine afterward.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Kellogg said Washington wants Ukraine to hold elections, possibly by the end of the year. When asked about that possibility, Zelenskyy claimed that Ukrainians are alarmed by such statements and don’t understand why the country is being pushed to hold elections during the war.
“It is very important for Kellogg to come to Ukraine. Then he would understand the people and all our circumstances,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump has complained bitterly about the cost of aid that the United States has poured into Ukraine and has indicated the United States will demand something in return.
“They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian some day. They may not be Russian some day, but we’re gonna have all this money in there and I said I want it back,” said Trump in an interview with Fox News on February 10.
Zelenskyy told the Guardian that he pitched the idea to Trump last year that the United States would get priority access to Ukraine’s rare earths in a deal to end the war.
Ukraine has the biggest uranium and titanium reserves in Europe, Zelenskyy said, and pointed out to Trump that it would not be in the interests of the United States for these reserves to be in Russian hands and potentially shared with North Korea, China, or Iran — all allies of Moscow.
Trump recently mentioned rare earth minerals being part of a deal on the war in Ukraine and said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would travel to Ukraine to discuss rare earth mineral resources. The White House has not released any details on Bessent’s trip.
