KIEV (Ukraine): Ukraine's new leaders named a strongly pro-Western cabinet on Wednesday as brawls erupted between rival factions on the volatile Crimean peninsula and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered snap military drills near the border with the ex-Soviet state.

Kiev is grappling with the dual threats of separatism and economic default as it tries to recover from three months of protests that triggered pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych's ouster following a week of carnage in which nearly 100 people died.

The interim leaders tried to secure the splintered nation's confidence by announcing the nomination of opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko's top ally Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister before a receptive crowd of about 25,000 on Kiev's iconic Independence Square — the crucible of Ukraine's biggest and most deadly protests since independence in 1991.

But the wave of secessionist sentiment that gripped the Russified southeastern parts of Ukraine following the fall of the pro-Kremlin regime boiled over in Crimea as an angry crowd of a few thousand led by pro-Russian Cossacks squared off against a force of a similar size spearheaded by Muslim Tatars.

Local health authorities said one man died of a heart attack during the mayhem in the port town of Simferopol.—AFP