Mammoth Russian military drills ordered by President Vladimir Putin from the Pacific to the Black Sea are designed to send a message to the West: keep your distance and don't overplay your hand on Ukraine, observers say.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis more than a year ago, Russia has flexed its muscles with a series of war games but the scale of the latest military exercises -- including sending nuclear bombers to Crimea and ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad in central Europe -- has triggered a series of new questions.

Germany on Friday criticized Russia for signing an alliance with Georgia's breakaway region South Ossetia this week, joining a chorus of Western condemnation.

"With this treaty, Russia once more puts into question Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty," German government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said.

Russia proposed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution Thursday asking Kiev to "immediately start consultations" with pro-Russian separatists on elections within their eastern Ukraine strongholds.

The Russian text cites a paragraph from a February peace accord, which "provides for discussion and agreement on questions related to local elections in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions."

British Prime Minister David Cameron is establishing a fund to help Eastern European states resist pressure from Russia, several media outlets reported on Friday.

Sky News said the "Good Governance Fund" would amount to £20 million ($30 million, 28 million euros) in 2015 and 2016.

Seventy years ago they crushed Nazi Germany together but raging tensions over Ukraine mean Russia's former World War II allies in the West will snub the Kremlin's showcase victory anniversary celebrations.

As top Western leaders give President Vladimir Putin's Red Square parade on May 9 the cold shoulder, the guest list of those likely to be coming -- including China's president and North Korea's reclusive leader -- shows how Moscow's international standing has shifted.

Sweden said Thursday it would order two new submarines to boost its armed forces months after a futile hunt for a suspected Russian mini-sub in the Stockholm archipelago.

"The order... will ensure Sweden's underwater capacity beyond 2030," Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said in a statement.

Russia said Thursday it had doubled the number of troops taking part in mass drills ordered by President Vladimir Putin this week to 80,000 in a major show of strength amid tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Putin on Monday ordered drills for more than 40,000 troops in regions spanning the country, from the Arctic to the far east to the volatile southern Caucasus, and ordered nuclear bomber jets to be deployed in Crimea a year after its annexation by Moscow.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused both government and rebels forces of using cluster bombs in eastern Ukraine, with at least 13 civilians killed by the weapons since the start of the year.

"Using cluster munitions shows utter disregard for civilians," said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone Wednesday on Ukraine, stressing they would keep up sanctions on Russia over its role in the crisis.

"There will be no easing of sanctions imposed on Russia until it has fulfilled all of its Minsk commitments," the White House said, referring to a recent deal to defuse tensions in eastern Ukraine.

Representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad and opposition figures will meet for peace talks in Moscow on April 6, three months after a meeting ended without concrete results, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

The ministry spokesman did not specify which opposition representatives and officials from Assad's government would attend the talks.