Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has offered to host Russia-Ukraine truce talks that could involve US officials, he said in an interview published Wednesday.

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Belarus previously hosted talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in 2014 and 2015 mediated by France and Germany, resulting in the Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015, named after the Belarusian capital.

Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Tell Trump that I expect him here with Putin and Zelensky," Lukashenko proposed to the three leaders in a video interview with US blogger Mario Nawfal, reported by state news agency Belta.

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Minsk is under US and European sanctions over its support for Russia's military action in Ukraine and a government crackdown on the opposition.

Russia used Belarusian territory to send some troops into Ukraine in 2022.

But the 70-year-old president went on: "We are going to sit down and calmly make an accord. If you want to make an accord."

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Lukashenko said there had to be a deal with Zelensky "since a large part of Ukrainian society is with him".

"There is only 200 kilometres (125 miles) between the Belarus frontier and Kyiv. Half an hour in a plane. Come," he declared in the interview recorded on February 27.

Lukashenko also praised Trump's efforts to talk with Russia to end the three-year conflict.

"Trump is a good guy, he talks about it a lot and has already done something to end the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East," Lukashenko said.

"It seems to me that his only policy is one aiming to end the war. It is a brilliant idea."

The interview was conducted before Trump said Tuesday that Zelensky had told him he was ready for talks on a "lasting peace" with Russia and before Trump and Zelensky's clash in the Oval Office on Friday.

The aim of previous agreements negotiated in Belarus was to reach a political settlement under which Ukraine would retain sovereignty over the eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions but grant them greater autonomy.

They caused a reduction in fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatists but the terms were never fully implemented as Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of violations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the idea of talks in Belarus had not been brought up.

"But for us, Minsk is the best place for negotiations. Minsk is our ally," he told reporters.

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