Russia

MOSCOW/KYIV/DONETSK, Ukraine, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia will extend military drills in Belarus that were due to end on Sunday, the Belarusian defence ministry announced, in a step U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said made him more worried about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The defence ministry said the decision was taken because of military activity near the borders of Russia and Belarus as well as the situation in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov told his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian over the phone on Saturday that Ukraine is building up its military forces on the contact line in Donbass and continues armed provocations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 19. /TASS/: A shell exploded on Saturday in Russia’s Rostov Region 1 kilometer from the border with Ukraine, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"The shell exploded on the territory of the Tarasovsky District of the Rostov Region, 1 kilometer from the border of Russia and Ukraine," the source said. "The explosion occurred at 4:00 Moscow time 300 meters from a house."

Local residents reported the incident to law enforcement agencies, the source said.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 18. /TASS/: The Rostov Region introduced the regime of state of emergency due to a large number of refugees from Donbass, regional Governor Vasily Golubev said on Saturday.

"Given the trend for increasing numbers of arriving people we consider it appropriate to introduce the regime of an emergency situation from 10:00 of February 19," he said at a meeting with Russia’s Acting Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Chupriyan.

"That’s the right decision. We support it," Chupriyan said.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 recoveries grew by 191,098 over the past day to 12,217,942, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Saturday.

The share of recovered patients hit 80.4% of the total case tally, according to the crisis center.

Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 179,147 to 15,199,720 in the past 24 hours. The relative case growth rate was 1.19%.

Russia’s coronavirus death toll rose by 798 to 344,755 in the past 24 hours. One day earlier, 784 deaths were reported.

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The leader of the east Ukraine breakaway region of Donetsk on Saturday said he had introduced general mobilisation, with fears mounting of war in the ex-Soviet country.

  The announcement came after observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported a significant rise in attacks on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The head of a Russia-dominated military alliance that is sometimes called Moscow's answer to NATO has said his organisation could send peacekeepers to territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed rebels if needed.

MOSCOW, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, Russia's strategic deterrence forces conducted large-scale drills on Saturday as the Ukrainian crisis has flared up.

Putin watched the exercise from the situation center at the Kremlin together with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia's Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Black Sea Fleets were involved in the drills, according to the statement.

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/: The United States and other NATO countries are yet unwilling to perceive Russia’s key security demands adequately, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday.

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/: Russia is double checking reports that mercenaries are being sent from Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Donbass, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RT television, which was published on the ministry’s website on Friday.

"There’s information that mercenaries are being recruited in Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to knock Russia out of balance and send them to places including Donbass," he said. "We are now double checking that."