UKRAINE President Yanukovych Releases Statement from RUSSIA

UKRAINE President Yanukovych Releases Statement from RUSSIA
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Viktor F. Yanukovych declared on Thursday that he remained the lawful president of Ukraine and appealed to Russia to protect "my personal safety," only hours after masked gunmen seized the regional government buildings in Crimea's capital, barricaded themselves inside and raised the Russian flag.
Even as Ukraine's interior minister appealed for calm and vowed to prevent any escalation of the confrontation in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, Mr. Yanukovych added fuel to what seemed to be the stirrings of a separatist rebellion that could tear Ukraine apart. He warned that the largely Russian regions of Ukraine in the east and in Crimea would "not accept the anarchy and outright lawlessness" that has gripped the country.
Mr. Yanukovych, in a written statement given to two Russian state news agencies, sounded determined to continue to fight for power, perhaps in a splintered state, five days after he fled Kiev in a helicopter and disappeared from sight. From the Black Sea to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the developments raised fears that the already wrenching confrontation over Ukraine's future was worsening rather than ending.
"I continue to consider myself the lawful head of the Ukrainian government, elected on the basis of the free expression of the will of Ukrainian citizens," he said in the statement, according to the two news agencies, RIA Novosti and Itar-Tass. "I cannot be indifferent to the tragic events in my homeland."
Whether Mr. Yanukovych can cling to power remains far from clear. Members of his own party have deserted him, and the newly elected members of the Parliament not only impeached him, but also moved on Thursday to approve an interim government ahead of presidential elections in May.
Mr. Yanukovych's whereabouts remain a mystery. Russian news agencies reported that he had already arrived in Russia, citing anonymous sources, but officials including President Vladimir V. Putin's spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, did not immediately confirm that.
The seizure of the government buildings in Crimea raised the specter of a violent confrontation over the status of Crimea and other regions where a majority of residents supported Mr. Yanukovych. In Simferopol, the local police sealed off access to the government buildings that were seized in mysterious overnight raids by what appeared to militant Russian nationals. Crimea has been a source of tension between Ukraine and Russia for decades: the territory was ceded to Ukraine in 1954 and remained part of it when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Arsen Avakov, Ukraine's acting interior minister, said that the new government was taking unspecified measures "to counter the extremists actions and prevent an escalation of an armed conflict in the center of the city." It was unclear, however, how much authority Mr. Avakov has over the police and other government agencies in Crimea, where a heavily ethnic Russian population views the ouster of Mr. Yanukovych as a fascist coup.
"Provocateurs are on the march," Mr. Avakov added, making his announcement, as he has others, on his Facebook account. "It's a time for cool heads, the healthy consolidation of forces, and careful action."
Mr. Yanukovych's remarks were his first since Saturday, when he appeared in a video that apparently was recorded in his political base in eastern Ukraine. Even in his diminished and humiliated position, with journalists and ordinary people traipsing through his presidential palace and sorting through incriminating records, Mr. Yanukovych asserted his authority over the country's armed forces and warned that they should not be called in to quell the apparent rebellion in Simferopol.
"I, as the actual president, have not allowed the armed forces of Ukraine to interfere in the ongoing internal political events," he said, contradicting reports that he had ordered the military to intervene in Kiev, only to have his order rebuffed. "I continue to order this. In the case that anyone begins to give a similar order to the armed forces and power structures, those orders will be unlawful and criminal."
Russia has denounced the political upheaval in Kiev and refused to recognize the new interim government, but officials have also insisted that Russia would not intervene, even as it began a massive military drill on Ukraine's doorstep. Granting sanctuary to Mr. Yanukovych even as he claims to lead Ukraine would nonetheless deepen the confrontation with Europe and the United States.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine's leaders were bound by an agreement mediated by three European foreign ministers. That agreement, signed last Friday, called for an interim national unity government and new elections, but not until December. Mr. Yanukovych's statement echoed that position, though it appears highly unlikely that the collapse of that agreement could now be reversed.