Thursday 24 April 2014 14.55 Ukraine's interior ministry has said its forces have killed "up to five" pro-Russian separatists in the rebel-held town of Slaviansk in the east of the country.
It also said its troops have destroyed three illegal checkpoints.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that deployment of military in east Ukraine by the Kiev authorities was a crime against its own people that will "have consequences."
"If Kiev really began to use the army against the country's population... that is a very serious crime against its own people," Mr Putin said, calling the current pro-West authorities a "junta".
"That is simply a punitive measure that will without question have consequences... including for our inter-governmental relations," he added, without specifying the nature of consequences.
Ukraine's military launched an assault on Slaviansk sending in armoured vehicles and a helicopter.
Several armoured personnel carriers drove past an abandoned rebel roadblock in flames to take up position at the entry to the town.
Shooting was heard as a helicopter flew overhead. Pro-Russian gunmen in the town were retreating to defensive positions.
A spokeswoman for the separatists, Stella Khorocheva, said that all civilians had been ordered out of the town hall.
"The armed men handling the defence of the town hall will remain," she said.
Russia has ordered new military exercises in Russian regions bordering Ukraine in response to Kiev's operation against militants in the east.
"We are compelled to react to such a situation," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies at a meeting of the defence ministry.
"From today, military exercises have started in regions bordering Ukraine involving battalions of tactical forces of the southern and western military districts," he said.
He said that the exercises were a forced measure in response to fatalities during Ukraine's military operation against separatists who have occupied eastern cities close to the Russian border.
"The situation in Ukraine provokes serious concern. From 22 April the new Ukrainian leadership has begun the so-called active phase of an operation in the southeastern borders of Ukraine. There are already people killed," Mr Shoigu said.
"A start has already been made in using weapons against peaceful citizens of their own country. If this war machine is not stopped today, then it will lead to a large number of dead and wounded."
Earlier, the Ukrainian government said soldiers had regained control of the town hall in the southeastern port city of Mariupol and repelled an attack on an army base in the eastern town of Artemivsk.
Ukraine's military clashed with pro-Russian separatists in two eastern towns overnight, the interior and defence ministries said today.
Separatist sources confirmed the loss of the town hall in Mariupol, a city with a population of nearly 500,000.
The city was the scene of a rebel attack on troops last week that left three militants dead.
The separatists had held the town hall since 13 April.
"The town hall is liberated and can function normally," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page.
In Artemivsk, the defence ministry said that nearly 100 separatists "opened fire with automatic weapons, machine guns and used grenades" in the attack on the military base.
In a statement, it said a soldier was wounded, but not critically.
"The attackers were repelled and suffered significant losses," acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said in his own statement.
The interior ministry confirmed the rebel assault and claimed it was led "by a Russian soldier".
There was no immediate confirmation by non-government sources of the incident in Artemivsk.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has said that Russia is not abiding by agreements aimed at defusing the crisis in Ukraine, in his first public comments since the Geneva meeting.
President Obama, who was speaking in Tokyo at the start of a four-nation tour of Asia, said he had been pessimistic from the off that Moscow would stick to what was agreed in Geneva.
"There was some possibility that Russia could take the wiser course after the meeting in Geneva.
"So far at least we have seen them not abide by the spirit or the letter of the agreement in Geneva," he said.
"Instead we continue to see malicious, armed men taking over buildings, harassing folks who are disagreeing with them, destabilising the region and we haven't seen Russia step out and discouraging it.
"On the other side you have seen the government in Kiev taking very concrete steps, introducing amnesty law, offering the whole range of reforms with respect to the constitution, that are consistent with what we discussed in Geneva," President Obama said.
"We have already applied sanctions that have had an impact on the Russian economy. We have continued to hold out the prospect, the possibility to resolve the issue diplomatically.
"We've been very clear about the fact that there is not going to be a military solution to the problem in Ukraine."
However, he warned, if Russia did not play its part, there would be "consequences and we will ramp up further sanctions".
Russia expects that the Geneva agreement will be implemented in practical steps, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying this morning.
"Russia expects that the Geneva accords will be implemented in practical actions in the near future," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.
However, Mr Lavrov also accused the US and the European Union of being behind a popular uprising that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine in February.
"In Ukraine, the United States and the European Union tried to stage - let's call things what they are - another 'colour revolution', an operation to unconstitutionally change regime," Interfax quoted him as saying.
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