Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko places poppies at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Source: AP

“I have positive news. Today is the first 24 hours for seven months ... when we have a real ceasefire in Ukraine,” he said in Sydney. “You simply can’t imagine how important it is for me. This is the first night when I don’t have either a lost or wounded Ukrainian soldier.”

The ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels was introduced on Tuesday in the hope of ending a conflict that has claimed at least 4300 lives and displaced close to one million people, according to UN figures.

The silencing of the guns in eastern Ukraine came as Sweden cited “Russian rearmament” for bringing back the option of using reservists to boost its military force and Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said he was concerned by the extent of Russia’s military activity over the Baltic Sea.

“We see how the world around us has changed in a negative way: partly the Russian rearmament, partly Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the armed conflict in Ukraine,” Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told broadcaster SVT.

The government decision reversed a 2010 vote by parliament that ended compulsory military service and suspended the possibility of calling up former conscripts and volunteers for compulsory retraining.

Now the Swedish armed forces can oblige 7500 Swedes — who received military training between 2004 and 2011 — to participate in training exercises from the end of next year.

“With this decision, the armed forces can carry out exercises with fully manned military units, which will mean an increase in operational capacity,” he said.

The decision does not require a new parliamentary vote and will apply for 10 years.

Sweden, with a long tradition of neutrality and outside NATO, has had an intense security debate after a decade of military cutbacks and an uptick in Russian air force activity near its Baltic Sea airspace.

Since the end of military service in 2010, the Swedish armed forces have struggled to attract recruits. When Russia staged a simulated bomber attack on Stockholm in early 2013, the air force failed to respond, prompting the chief of the armed forces to say Sweden lacked the ability to defend itself for more than a week.

A week-long hunt for a suspected Russian submarine in October led to an increased commitment to the military from the Social Democrat-led government that took power in September.

On Monday, Dutch F-16 fighters intercepted two Russian bombers over the Baltic as part of their participation in NATO’s Baltic air policing mission.

All told, more than 30 Russian aircraft were intercepted in international airspace “over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway” on Monday, a NATO spokesman said.

“For a few days now, there has been unprecedented Russian activity, from its Baltic fleet to flights over the Baltic Sea,” Mr Siemoniak told Polish broadcaster TVN24. “We’re concerned by this. NATO is working on preparing some kind of response.”

AFP