WASHINGTON, Feb 8, 2025 (BSS/TASS) - US President Donald Trump has said that he plans to hold a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky next week, with Washington as the potential venue.

"I will probably be meeting with Zelensky next week, and I will probably be talking to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin," the US leader said before talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the White House. "He [Zelensky] may meet [with me] next week, whatever he's like, I'm here."

The US president seemed partial to holding the talks on his home turf, saying that they "could be [in] Washington," adding: "Well, I'm not going there [to Ukraine]."

Trump did not elaborate on when he and Putin might talk.

He reiterated that the Ukrainian crisis never would've happened if he were president when it started.

Previously, Trump said that hopefully a peace agreement will be concluded "at some point in the not too distant future."

On June 14, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined the conditions for a settlement in Ukraine at a meeting with the leadership of the Foreign Ministry. These conditions include the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from Donbass and Novorossiya, and Kiev's pledge not to join NATO. The rights, freedoms, and interests of Russian-speaking citizens must also be fully protected in Ukraine. Russia considers it necessary to lift all Western sanctions against it and to establish Ukraine's non-aligned and nuclear-free status.

The opinion that Ukrainian settlement talks should be conducted between Russia and the United States, with Kiev's nominal participation and without Europe, has started to circulate in the Western media.