Exile Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych insisted in his first public appearance in Russia that he had not been overthrown and would continue to fight.

He told reporters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don that he had been "compelled to leave" following threats to his safety.

He savaged the anti-Kremlin and pro-EU forces who have seized power.

"Power in Ukraine has been taken by nationalist, pro-fascist young people who represent the absolute minority of people. This is anarchy, terror and chaos."

Mr Yanukovych said he could understand the anger of citizens in Crimea against the new Ukrainian authorities, calling it "an absolutely natural reaction to the bandit-like takeover in Kiev."

But he insisted Crimea was and should remain an integral part of Ukraine.

Meanwhile in Crimea, armed men in unmarked uniforms continued to hold the parliament building and the two main airports, while the government of the autonomous region was in the process of electing a new government untainted by links to Kiev.

Top parliamentary official Serhiy Tsekov said the men who entered the parliament "came at the invitation of Crimean MPs and will remain here as long as we ask them to."

Russian Unity party leader Sergey Aksyonov, who was appointed Crimean Prime Minister on Thursday, said that he and Crimean parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantinov were "fully controlling the situation."

And Mr Konstantinov flatly told reporters: "The Crimean Supreme Council is a legitimately elected body and the incumbent president of Ukraine is Viktor Yanukovych."

But Ukraine's new rump government declared that the men in Crimea's parliament and at the airports were Russian soldiers and appealed to Kiev's Western backers for action at the United Nations security council to block Russia.

But the Russian authorities continued to insist that their country had no hand in the actions of Ukrainian patriots.