WASHINGTON, August 25. /TASS/. American leader Donald Trump believes there's a simple reason why Russian President Vladimir Putin might not want to meet with Vladimir Zelensky.

When asked by a journalist why Putin isn't seeking out a meeting with Zelensky, Trump replied bluntly: "Because he doesn't like him."

"I have people I don't like, I don't like to meet with them. You know, they don't like each other, really," the American leader said at the White House after signing a series of executive orders.

"And if we had a real president, instead of a guy that got in there with a fraudulent election, if we had a real president, that war would have never happened," Trump added, referring to Joe Biden. "Putin actually said, he said, ‘If Trump were president, it wouldn't have happened.’ It would have never happened if I were president."

After an August 15 meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, Putin said he confirmed Trump's position that "if he had been president, there would have been no war."

The meeting between Putin and Trump took place on at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base. The conversation lasted about three hours: one-on-one in the limo of the American leader on the way to the main meeting place and in a three-on-three format. Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also took part in the meeting from the Russian side, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff from the American side. In a press statement following the talks, Putin said that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict had become the main topic of the summit.