Volodymyr Zelensky sworn in as Ukraine's sixth president Monday May 20.2019

Zelensky defeated the outgoing president,PetroPoroshenko, in the second round of presidential elections on April 21,2019 with 73 percent of the votes

The inauguration ceremony on Monday May 20.2019 came more than two weeks earlier than expected following the parliament's approval of the date requested by Zelensky.

The 41-year-old announced dissolution of the parliament in his speech, a strategic move ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on October 27,2019

Zelensky was keen to take over the top office quickly to try to hold the key elections earlier to boost his party's chances of securing a majority at the height of his popularity.

In his speech, Zelensky also attacked the cabinet of ministers, saying he did not understand why they kept saying they could not do much to change the situation in the country.

"You can take a paper, a pen and free up your space for those who will think about the next generation instead of the next elections. I think people will appreciate that," he said.

Zelensky, who more than three years ago played a corruption-busting president in a popular TV sitcom that shaped his image during the real-life election campaign, called on Ukrainians to share the responsibility for the country's future.

"From today, each of us is responsible for Ukraine, which we leave to our children. Each of us died in the Donbass, every day we lose each of us. Each of us is a migrant, a foreign worker," said the president

"But we will overcome all this. We are all Ukrainians. There are no big or smaller ones. Each of us is Ukrainian. From Uzhgorod to Lugansk, from Chernigov to Simferopol, in Lviv, Kharkov, Donetsk, Dnipro and Odessa."

Zelensky, who walked to his inauguration "to be closer to people", said: "Throughout my life, I tried to do everything so that Ukrainians would smile. For the next five years, I will do everything so that Ukrainians do not cry."

The president also said he would start a dialogue with Russia only after Moscow releases of the prisoners of war taken from Donbass region - a conflict zone.

The war broke out in Ukraine shortly after a pro-European uprising ousted Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovich, which prompted Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

The ethnic Russian separatists seized parts of Donbass, an area in east Ukraine which includes Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

The conflict has killed more than 13,000 people.