NATO said earlier this week that Russia has resumed a military build-up on the border with Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting government forces for weeks in a conflict that has left about 300 people dead and displaced over 34,000.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered his forces to cease fire yesterday and halt military operations for a week, the first step in a peace plan he hopes will end the fighting that has killed hundreds.
The combat alert in the central military district, which encompasses the Volga region and the Ural mountains but not western Russia, will last until next Saturday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, quoted by Russian state news agencies.
Some 65,000 troops will take part in military drills accompanying the combat alert, according to head of Russian General Staff Gen Valery Gerasimov, including several thousand troops of an airborne division which will be moved from a city 200 kilometres east of Moscow where they are stationed to the Ural mountains.
More From This Section
The Ukrainian Border Guard Service reported overnight attacks on two border posts in the Donetsk region, which left three troops injured, hours after the cease-fire was announced.
One of the posts, Vyselky, was attacked with mortar and sniper fire for half an hour, the border guards said.
An attack on another border post, Izvaryne, immediately before the cease-fire left six men injured, the border guard service said.
Ukraine's Defence Ministry reported two attacks on the quarters of a missile unit in the village of Avdiyivka.
The rebels left in the morning, the defence ministry said.