Ukraine's president ready to meet Russia's Putin in Minsk

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a news conference after meeting European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Belgium, June 5, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is ready to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Minsk for talks that would also involve Germany, Britain, the United States and France, Zelenskiy said in a social media video on Monday.

"And now I want to turn to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Need to talk? It is necessary. Let's discuss whom Crimea belongs to and who is not there in the Donbass," Zelenskiy said.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia plunged after Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and backing of fighters in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed 13,000 people.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Catherine Evans)