SIMFEROPOL (Ukraine): Ukraine issued a blunt warning to Russia on Thursday after pro-Kremlin men in combat fatigues seized parliament and government buildings on the volatile Crimean peninsula and Moscow said it was protecting the ousted leader.

The dawn raid came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin stoked fears of Moscow using its military might to sway the outcome of Ukraine’s three-month standoff by ordering snap combat readiness drills near the border with the ex-Soviet state.

Interim president Oleksandr Turchynov responded by telling a boisterous parliament session that any movement of Russian troops out of their Black Sea bases in Crimea “will be considered as military aggression”.

Ukraine’s bloodiest crisis since its 1991 independence erupted in November when Viktor Yanukovych -- deposed as president last weekend -- made the shock decision to ditch a historic EU trade deal in favour of closer ties with old master Russia.

Yanukovych broke a five-day silence on Thursday by telling Russian news agencies from an undisclosed location he still viewed himself as president of the strategic but now splintered nation that has served as the geopolitical bridge between Russia and the West.

A high-ranking source quoted by the news agencies said the fugitive leader’s request for personal security had been “granted on Russian territory”.

Ukraine had appeared to take a decisive swing back toward the European Union by ousting Yanukovych’s entire pro-Russian team and replacing it with a new brand of younger pro-Western politicians who will steer the nation -- torn between a Russified east and pro-European west -- until snap presidential polls are held on May 25.

The 450-seat Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on Thursday confirmed opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko’s top ally Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister by a 371-0 vote.

“Ukraine is being torn apart,” a sombre Yatsenyuk told the session. “But Ukraine sees its future in Europe. We will be a part of the European Union.” Russian flag flies in Crimea: The Russian tricolour flew over both the Crimean parliament and government buildings in the regional capital Simferopol as supporters of Moscow arrived from other parts of the peninsula by car and bus.

The Black Sea autonomous region’s prime minister Anatoliy Mohilyov said that up to 50 men with weapons had seized the buildings and were stopping government workers from going inside.

But his predecessor Serhiy Kunitsyn told lawmakers in Kiev that his contacts in Crimea said the raid involved “about 120 well-trained gunmen armed with sniper rifles... and carrying enough ammunition to last them a month”.

Ukraine’s interim interior minister Arsen Avakov said internal security troops and the entire police force had been put on heightened alert.

The prosecutor general’s office announced separately it had launched a criminal probe into a suspected “act of terrorism” by the gunmen.

About 20 police had cordoned off the area after moving a crowd of about 400 pro-Russian onlookers away from the direct vicinity of the siege.

“We hope that the (Ukrainian) nationalists in Kiev do not come here,” said Russian-speaking pensioner Sergei Vladimirovich.

The international response to the Crimean standoff was swift and mostly critical of Russia.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato head, urged “Russia not to take any action that can escalate tension or create misunderstanding” while the British Foreign Office said it was “watching carefully”.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski -- one of the strongest proponents of Ukraine’s eventual EU membership -- warned of “a very dangerous game” in Crimea.

But Russia said it would abide by treaties with Ukraine on its fleet in Sevastopol, after declaring on Wednesday it had to take security measures to protect it.

YANUKOVYCH IN RUSSIA: The fugitive Yanukovych -- wanted for “mass murder” over the deadly protests last week -- had been widely believed to have gone into hiding in Crimea with his two sons and a small team of heavily armed guards.

But Russian television reported on Wednesday that Yanukovych, who fled his luxurious country estate near Kiev at the weekend, was hiding in a government health resort near Moscow.

His statement did not disclose his whereabouts, but said he was “compelled to ask the Russian Federation to ensure my personal security from the actions of extremists”.

“I still consider myself to be the legal head of the Ukrainian state,” Yanukovych said.

He warned that it was “becoming evident the people in south-eastern Ukraine and Crimea are not accepting the anarchy and de facto lawlessness in the country”.

Western rescue: Ukraine’s new leaders are facing the spectre of separatism from industrial regions in the east and south of the country whose cultural and linguistic ties to Moscow trace back centuries and whose trade depends heavily on Russia.—AFP