Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that his first priority in 2016 will be to ensure peace in Donbas and bring Ukraine back into the region.

"This is primarily to ensure peace and - I stress - Ukraine's return into Donbas. In 2016, Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions must be restored," Poroshenko said at the start of his first press conference this year in Kyiv on Thursday.

Another top priority on the agenda is the fight for the return of Crimea, he said.

"We will propose creating an international mechanism for the de-occupation of the peninsula. The optimal format for launching such a mechanism is, in my view, the Geneva plus format, which involves our partners from the European Union, the United States and possibly the signatories to the Budapest Memorandum," the Ukrainian president said.

"The toughest challenges such as the return of Donbas and Crimea, I am planning to tackle primarily by way of political diplomacy and international law. I reiterate our firm commitment to the full implementation by all parties, without exception, of all clauses of the Minsk agreements. We will not allow any revision of the Minsk agreements," Poroshenko said.