| Ukraine crisis: Russian president Vladimir Putin slams 'anti-constitutional, armed' power seizure |
 Russian president Vladimir Putin says his country will not go to war with the people of Ukraine, but he reserves the right to use force to protect citizens there.
The Russian leader slammed the takeover of power in Ukraine as "anti-constitutional" and an "armed seizure of power" and said neo-Nazis, nationalists and anti-Semites were now active in the country.
Mr Putin said there was no need to use force at the moment, but he reserved the right to use "all means" to protect citizens should the necessity arise.
"There can only be one assessment of what happened in Kiev and Ukraine as a whole - this was an anti-constitutional takeover and armed seizure of power," Mr Putin said on live television in his first comments since Mr Yanukovych's ousting.
He said he considered deposed president Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's only legitimate president and he does not recognise interim president Olexandr Turchynov.
"The legitimate president, purely legally, is undoubtedly Yanukovych," Mr Putin said.
Crucially, Mr Putin said this meant Russian intervention in Ukraine was justified because Moscow had received a request for protection of its citizens from Mr Yanukovych.
"We have a direct request from the acting and legitimate - as I have already said - president Viktor Yanukovych - about using armed forces to protect the lives, health and freedom of Ukrainian citizens," Mr Putin said.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin showed the letter dated March 1 at Security Council talks on Monday.
Mr Putin conceded however that Mr Yanukovych's political career was over.
"I think he has no political future - I told him that. As for playing a role in his fate, we did that purely from humanitarian reasons," Mr Putin said of Mr Yanukovych, who took refuge in southern Russia after crossing from Ukraine in a way that has not been made public.
He described Ukraine as "our brotherly republic neighbour" and denied armed forces controlling the Crimean region have any ties to the Russian government.
Asked if Russian forces took part in operations in Crimea he said, "No, they did not participate," adding: "There are lots of uniforms that look similar."
Mr Putin said only "local forces of self-defence" were surrounding Ukrainian military bases in the region.
Ukraine's new authorities have said that several thousand Russian troops have poured into Crimea over the last days, in claims backed by Western officials.
However, Mr Putin portrayed the events that have seen armed men in unmarked uniforms seize several Ukrainian army bases in Crimea as an uprising by locals worried about the new authorities in Kiev.
Asked why the men are so well-equipped, Mr Putin said that protesters in Kiev were also well equipped and worked "like clockwork".
"They worked... like special forces," he said. "Why should they not work as well in Crimea?"
"The Crimeans are very worried. For this reason they formed committees of self-defence and taken all armed forces under control.
"Thank God that this was done without a single shot and everything is in the hands of the Crimean people."
Moscow wants the current government in Kiev to be replaced by a broad coalition representing what it calls "all political forces" in the country, with presidential elections to be held in December.
United States secretary of state John Kerry has landed in Kiev for talks with Ukraine's interim government.
Officials travelling with Mr Kerry said the US would offer $US1 billion to financially-stricken Ukraine as part of an international loan.
Ukraine foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is expeced to meet with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in the Spanish capital Madrid.
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