Russian-backed separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine declared a full military mobilisation on Saturday, a day after ordering women and children to evacuate to southern Russia because of what they said was the threat of conflict.

Denis Pushilin (above), head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said in a video statement that he had signed a decree on mobilisation and called on men "able to hold a weapon in their hands" to come to military commissariats.