Kiev, April 20 (TIWN) Ukraine is conducting large-scale anti-terrorist exercises across the country to practice actions aimed at protecting strategically important infrastructures and state borders, authorities said.

The training conditions are as close as possible to the real ones, according to the SBU.  Since last month, tensions have been escalating on the border between Ukraine and Russia.  Commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ruslan Khomchak said that Russia was building up troops near the border in the northern, eastern and southern directions.  The Russian military has deployed two armies and three airborne formations to western borders that has worried Ukraine.  Parts of the conflict-ridden Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the Russian border have been controlled by rebels supported by Moscow for nearly seven years.  According to UN estimates, more than 13,000 people have been killed in fighting since 2014.  Despite the imposition of the latest ceasefire in 2015, around 50 people have been killed since the beginning of the year alone.