Land swaps with Russia are not only unpopular in Ukraine. They're also
illegal
[August 13, 2025]
By SAMYA KULLAB
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A peace deal that requires Kyiv to accept swapping
Ukrainian territory with Russia would not only be deeply unpopular. It
also would be illegal under its constitution.
That's why President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically rejected any
deal with Moscow that could involve ceding land after U.S. President
Donald Trump suggested such a concession would be beneficial to both
sides, ahead of his meeting Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin
in Alaska.
Zelenskyy said over the weekend that Kyiv “will not give Russia any
awards for what it has done,” and that “Ukrainians will not give their
land to the occupier.” The remarks came after Trump said a peace deal
would involve swapping of Ukrainian territories by both sides “to the
betterment of both.”
For Zelenskyy, such a deal would be disaster for his presidency and
spark public outcry after more than three years of bloodshed and
sacrifice by Ukrainians. Moreover, he doesn’t have the authority to sign
off on it, because changing Ukraine’s 1991 borders runs counter to the
country’s constitution.
For now, freezing the front line appears to be an outcome the Ukrainian
people are willing to accept.
A look at the challenges such proposals entail:
Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukraine
Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukraine, from the country’s northeast
to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed illegally in 2014.
The front line is vast and cuts across six regions — the active front
stretches for at least 1,000 kilometers (680 miles) — but if measured
from along the border with Russia, it reaches as far as 2,300 kilometers
(1,430 miles).
Russia controls almost all of the Luhansk region and almost two-thirds
of Donetsk region, which together comprise the Donbas, as the strategic
industrial heartland of Ukraine is called. Russia has long coveted the
area and illegally annexed it in the first year of the full-scale
invasion, even though it didn’t control much of it at the time.
Russia also partially controls more than half of the Kherson region,
which is critical to maintain logistical flows of supplies coming in
from the land corridor in neighboring Crimea, and also parts of the
Zaporizhzhia region, where the Kremlin seized Europe’s largest nuclear
power plant.
Russian forces also hold pockets of territory in Kharkiv and Sumy
regions in northeastern Ukraine, far less strategically valuable for
Moscow. Russian troops are gaining a foothold in the Dnipropetrovsk
region. These could be what Moscow is willing to exchange for land it
deems more important in Donetsk, where the Russian army has concentrated
most of its effort.
“There’ll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and
through conversations with everybody. To the good, for the good of
Ukraine. Good stuff, not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both,”
Trump said Monday.
Ukrainian forces are still active in the Kursk region inside Russia, but
they barely hold any territory there, making it not as potent a
bargaining chip as Kyiv's leaders had probably hoped when they launched
the daring incursion across the border last year. Swapping Ukrainian
controlled territory in Russia, however minuscule, will likely be the
only palatable option for Kyiv in any land swapping scenario.
Conceding land risks another invasion
Surrendering territory would see those unwilling to live under Russian
rule to pack up and leave. Many civilians have endured so much suffering
and bloodshed since pro-Moscow forces began battling the Ukrainian
military in the east in 2014 and since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
From a military standpoint, abandoning the Donetsk region in particular
would vastly improve Russia’s ability to invade Ukraine again, according
to the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference
during his visit to Vienna, Austria, June 16, 2025. (AP
Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, File)
Bowing to such a demand would force Ukraine to abandon its “fortress
belt,” the main defensive line in Donetsk since 2014, "with no guarantee
that fighting will not resume,” the institute said in a recent report.
The regional defensive line has prevented Russia’s efforts to seize the
region and continues to impede Russia’s efforts to take the rest of the
area, ISW said.
Ukraine’s constitution poses a major challenge to any deal involving a
land swap because it requires a nationwide referendum to approve changes
to the country’s territorial borders, said Ihor Reiterovych, a politics
professor in the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
“Changes in territorial integrity can be done only by the decision of
the people — not the president, the cabinet of ministers or the
parliament can change it,” he said. “In the constitution it is written
that only by referendum can changes to Ukraine’s territory be
conducted.”
If during negotiations Zelenskyy agrees to swap territory with Russia,
"in the same minute he will be a criminal because he would be abandoning
the main law that governs Ukraine,” Reiterovych said.
Trump said he was “a little bothered” by Zelenskyy’s assertion over the
weekend that he needed constitutional approval to cede to Russia the
territory that it captured in its unprovoked invasion.
“I mean, he’s got approval to go into a war and kill everybody, but he
needs approval to do a land swap?” Trump added. ”Because there’ll be
some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through
conversations with everybody.”
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., brought a copy of
her country's constitution to her interview on Sunday with CBS' “Face
the Nation,” and described how the president is “the guarantor of the
constitution” and cannot give away land under Article 133.
Zelenskyy is still trying to regain the people's trust that was damaged
when he reversed course on a law that would have diminished the
independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs. The move was a red
line for those citizens who are protective of the country’s institutions
and are suspicious of certain members of Zelenskyy’s inner circle.
Freezing the conflict seems a lesser evil for Ukraine
Analysts like Reiterovych dismiss a land swap as a distraction. Freezing
the conflict along the current front line is the only option Ukrainians
are willing to accept, he said, citing recent polls.
This option would also buy time for both sides to consolidate manpower
and build up their domestic weapons industries. Ukraine would require
strong security guarantees from its Western partners to deter future
Russian aggression, which Kyiv believes is inevitable.
Still, freezing the conflict will also be difficult for Ukrainians to
accept.
Along with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the partial
occupation of Luhansk and Donetsk after that, it would require accepting
that the Ukrainian military is not able to retake lost territories
militarily. Kyiv accepted its inability to retake these territories but
never formally recognized them as Russian. A similar scenario could
unfold in the new regions taken by Russian forces.
It also is not a viable long-term solution.
“It is the lesser evil option for everyone and it will not provoke
protests or rallies on the streets,” Reiterovych said.
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Associated Press journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed.
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