Vladimir Putin Revokes Military Action in Ukraine's East

The Russian parliament's upper chamber has voted to revoke an order it granted to allow Russian president Vladimir Putin the power to authorise military intervention in Ukraine's restive eastern regions.

The move came at the request of Putin who hoped that the act would send a signal of goodwill to aid peace efforts between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk.

"The President of the Russian Federation has enough means under the constitution and federal law to effectively influence the situation in Ukraine," said Viktor Ozerov, head of the Federation Council's security committee, in a speech to the chamber.

"If, to that end, the president needs to take measures of a military nature, the Federation Council's Defence and Security Committee is ready ... to swiftly consider such a motion from the president. But I hope that will not be required."

The ballot saw 153 votes in favour of rescinding the order, issued in March, to one against with no abstentions. The decision will take immediate effect.

The parliament speaker asked the lone lawmaker who voted against the decision if he had pressed the wrong button in a further show of the parliament's commitment to the former KGB agent's decisions.

A week-long ceasefire, announced by newly-elected President Petro Poroshenko, is under threat after rebels shot down a government helicopter near Slovyansk.

Poroshenko has threatened to end the truce due to violations on the side of separatists while German chancellor Angela Merkel and British foreign secretary William Hague both warned Russia of further sanctions if they failed to act to stabilise the situation.

Nato's secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen claimed that there were "no signs" of Russia respecting its commitments to peace in Ukraine and said that the alliance was considering its options.