Lindsey Graham says Russia and Ukraine would likely need to swap land in a ceasefire deal

Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that Russia and Ukraine would have to swap some territory in any ceasefire agreement, echoing President Donald Trump's comments about land exchanges.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Russia and Ukraine would have to swap some territory to end the war, echoing President Donald Trump‘s comments about land exchanges.

“I want to be honest with you, Ukraine is not going to evict every Russian, and Russia is not going to Kyiv, so there will be some land swaps at the end,” Graham, R-S.C., said during Sunday’s interview.

That idea has been a non-starter for Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine would “not give their land to occupiers.” His comments came after Trump said on Friday that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”

Graham said land exchanges would only happen “after you have security guarantees to Ukraine to prevent Russia from doing this again.”

“You need to tell Putin what happens if he does it a third time,” Graham said, referring to Russia annexing Crimea in 2014 in addition to Russia’s 2022 invasion.