Ukraine's recently-elected president Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday offered to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Minsk for their first talks, calling for Western leaders to mediate.  

"Now I want to address the Russian President Vladimir Putin. We need to talk? We do. Let's do it," Zelensky said in a video address.  

The former comic actor who was elected with a landslide in April's presidential polls called for a meeting with the Russian president that would involve U.S. President Donald Trump and other Western leaders. He proposed discussing Crimea that was incorporated into Russia in 2014 and the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government troops and separatist militants.  

Zelensky said on his inauguration in May that resolving the two issues were his priority.  

"Let's discuss who Crimea belongs to and who isn't in the Donbass region," Zelensky said, referring to the eastern conflict zone.  

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Some 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that erupted in 2014. Kiev and its Western backers accuse Russia of funneling troops and arms across the border to fan the flames of the conflict. Moscow has denied any military involvement.  

A ceasefire agreement signed in Belarussian capital Minsk in 2015, with French and German support, has had only limited success in ending hostilities. 

In June, French President Emmanuel Macron said new talks could be possible with the same countries involved.  

Zelensky suggested in comments addressed to Putin that fresh talks also include the United States and Britain, which are strong backers of Kiev.  

"I suggest the following lineup for talks: me, you, U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (and) French President Emmanuel Macron," Zelensky said.  

May is to step down later this month.  

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"We are not changing or dropping any diplomatic formats," Zelensky added.  

Moscow said it was not ready to immediately comment on the possibility of such talks, calling Zelensky's proposal an "absolutely new format."  

"First there's a need to understand whether such a meeting has any prospects," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.  

"This is a new initiative. Of course it will be considered, but so far I can't express any reaction," he added. 

In Monday's statement, Zelenskiy also criticized a proposal, now abandoned, from Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk for a joint online conference with Russian state TV to help end the war in eastern Ukraine. 

Zelenskiy said the plan was "a cheap but dangerous" attempt to divide Ukrainians into two camps again ahead of parliamentary elections due on July 21. 

Opinion polls suggest Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party, which is campaigning on a pro-European, anti-graft ticket, will win the election, with Medvedchuk's Opposition Platform in second place. 

(With input from AFP, Reuters)

(Cover: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and Russian Vladimir Putin. /VCG Photo)