Kiev, 5 February 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is willing to enter into direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin under certain conditions.

In addition to Ukraine and Russia, the United States and Europe should also be involved in the talks, Zelensky told British journalist Piers Morgan in an interview published on YouTube late on Tuesday.

It was unclear whether Zelensky was referring to the European Union or to individual member states.

"If this is the only way to bring peace to the people of Ukraine and to avoid further loss of life, we will definitely go to this meeting with these four participants," he said.

"I will not be nice to him, I consider him an enemy, and frankly, I think he considers me an enemy too," Zelensky added.

Putin has recently emphasized that he is willing to negotiate, but has maintained that Zelensky has blocked any talks with him. Putin is referring to a decree signed by Zelensky in September 2022, after Russia annexed the four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson.

While the decree does not prohibit negotiations with the Russian leader, it states that they are impossible in view of the situation. Zelensky recently said the document was intended to prevent potential separatism because Moscow was looking for unofficial communication channels with Ukraine at that time.

Morgan is close to US President Donald Trump, who is pushing for an end to the war in Ukraine that has been ongoing for almost three years.

In his evening video address on Tuesday, Zelensky said that Ukraine had already begun holding "substative discussions" with the US.

The head of his presidential office Andriy Yermak has spoken with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Zelensky said, adding that a schedule for meetings is being prepared.

In his conversation with Morgan, Zelensky raised the issue of security guarantees, asking "What support package, what missiles [will we get]? Or will we get nuclear missiles? Then we should be given nuclear missiles."

Ukraine surrendered the last Soviet nuclear weapons on its territory in 1994 in return for vague security assurances from Moscow, London and Washington. Zelensky recently described this as a mistake.

MIA file photo