Clashes have broken out outside the main rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine, throwing the freshly forged ceasefire agreement between government troops and Russian-backed separatists into further doubt.

Witnesses in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol reported sustained explosions outside the city last night, and a volunteer battalion of Ukrainian fighters says Grad rockets were fired at its positions.

Ukraine and the Russian-backed rebels have signed a ceasefire deal that starts this afternoon, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) confirmed.

Shelling resounded on the outskirts of a key Ukrainian port as Russian-backed rebels pressed their south-east offensive, just hours ahead of talks that are widely hoped to bring a ceasefire.

Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists appear increasingly close to signing a deal to end four months of fighting.

Russia’s foreign minister has warned that Ukraine’s Nato ambitions are threatening to derail peace talks in eastern Ukraine.

Russian military forces have been spotted in both major rebel-held cities in eastern Ukraine, an official said, prompting Ukraine to declare it now has to fight the Russian army, not just the separatists.

Ukraine called yesterday for full membership in Nato, its strongest plea yet for Western military help, after accusing Russia of sending in armoured columns that have driven back its forces on behalf of pro-Moscow rebels.

Pro-Moscow rebels expressed confidence that eastern Ukraine had chosen self-rule in a referendum yesterday, with some saying that meant independence and others eventual union with Russia as fighting flared.

RUSSIAN beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said yesterday.

RUSSIANS sweltered yesterday in the hottest weather in decades as the number of drowning deaths since the start of the heat wave topped 1,600.

Massive waves split a Russian oil tanker in two during a fierce storm, spilling at least 2,000 metric tons of fuel into a strait leading to the Black Sea.

The death toll from the cold winter in Moscow has reached 300, a health official said today.