Trump said when he might meet with Zelensky

US President Donald Trump said he could meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky next week to discuss the war.

Trump did not specify whether the meeting would be in person or via video conference. He spoke about the possibility while answering questions from reporters during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House.

Trump said he would "probably meet with President Zelensky next week."

The US leader also expressed renewed interest in meeting with his Russian counterpart, noting that he has always had "good relations" with Putin.

When asked about the location of the meeting with Zelensky, Trump said he was "here in Washington," adding that he had no plans to travel to Kiev.

"I would like this war to end simply from a humanitarian point of view. It is a senseless war," Trump said.

He said he would talk to Zelensky about securing Ukraine's resources, particularly rare earth minerals, and that he wanted to get "something in return" for U.S. support.

"We want them to respond in kind," the White House chief of staff said.

Zelensky said in response to Trump's statement that Washington and Kiev planned to hold talks.

"We always value cooperation with President Trump. We also plan to hold meetings and negotiations at the team level. The Ukrainian and U.S. teams are already working out the details," Zelensky wrote in a post on the X platform.

Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said that Kiev is expecting a visit this month from Trump's special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg. Yermak said he discussed with Kellogg the situation on the battlefield, the safety of Ukrainian civilians and meetings at the annual Munich Security Conference later this month.

Trump has previously expressed interest in receiving Ukraine's rare earth elements in exchange for American aid.

"We want to make a deal with Ukraine where they will give us rare earth elements and other products in exchange for what they take from us," Trump said.

He added that he wants to ensure the security of rare earth elements supplies and that Ukraine is ready to help in this regard.

"We are investing hundreds of billions of dollars. They have wonderful rare earth elements," the US president stressed.

Ukraine's proposal to jointly mine rare earth minerals with the US is one of the points of the "victory plan" that President Volodymyr Zelensky presented to Trump and Republican congressmen in October 2024, ahead of the US presidential election. This was reported by the Financial Times (FT), and later, Mikhail Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian President's Office, confirmed this information and clarified that it was about lithium and titanium deposits, in particular. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”