Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hopes to achieve a real settlement in Donbas by means of a roadmap, the presidential website said in a report on Monday evening.

"Our partners and we convinced Russia in 2016 that a roadmap stipulating interrelated steps in security and politics is the only efficient way to a settlement. Hopefully, we will finally put this logic on paper and will take the path of a real settlement in 2017," Poroshenko said at an annual meeting with foreign ambassadors.

He said that Ukraine remained "loyal to the Minsk agreements and reiterated the need for their full implementation." "This is why the preservation of our unity and solidarity and further pressure on the Kremlin via sanctions are vital," he said.

The sanctions against Russia should stay in effect until Russia's complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreements on a settlement in eastern Ukraine and the complete restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, he said.

"The price Russia has been paying for the blatant violation of norms and principles of international law should grow. [...] The world should properly respond to the hybrid aggression and the disrespect for human rights and should confirm the UN's authority for the benefit of all peoples," Poroshenko said.