Some 2,050 interior troops were stopped outside the capital on Saturday after the president ordered their deployment to Kiev amid an escalating political crisis in the country, the deputy interior minister said.

The troops started moving toward Kiev early Saturday from different regions of Ukraine. Deputy Interior Minister Mykhailo Korniyenko told the Interfax news agency that the operation had been ordered by the commander of interior troops, Oleksander Kikhtenko.

Ivan Plyushch, head of the National Security Council, told reporters that Kikhtenko was carrying out the president's latest decree to maintain order in the capital city.

Ukraine's political turmoil began in April when President Viktor Yushchenko signed decrees dissolving parliament and called early elections. Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych rejected the act as unconstitutional.