President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has underlined the lack of prospects for the separatist Novorossiya project and said occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as Crimea, will be returned under the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state, press secretary of the president Sviatoslav Tseholko has said.

"The Novorossiya project has been buried. Ukraine will regain sovereignty over Donbas and Crimea," Tseholko said on Twitter on Tuesday, quoting Poroshenko.

Viktor Muzhenko, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, later echoed Poroshenko's remark. "The Ukrainian people have buried Novorossiya, and they will bury Malorossiya, too... Ukraine's territorial sovereignty will be restored. Unconditionally!" Muzhenko said on Facebook.

Earlier on Tuesday, Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's republic (DPR), proclaimed the foundation of Malorossiya as a new state.