1 of 10. Armed men stand inside the regional parliament building in the Crimean city of Simferopol February 27, 2014 in this still image taken from security camera footage. Footage from security cameras shows the moment armed men seized Simferopol's parliament building in Ukraine's Crimea region on Thursday. 
 
 SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region on Friday in what the new Ukrainian leadership described as an invasion by Moscow's forces, and ousted President Viktor Yanukovich surfaced in Russia after a week on the run. 
 
 Yanukovich said Russia should use all means at its disposal to stop the chaos in Ukraine as tension rose on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the only region with an ethnic Russian majority and the last major bastion of resistance to the overthrow of the Moscow-backed leader. 
 
 Acting President Oleksander Turchinov accused Russia of open aggression and said Moscow was following a scenario simliar to the one before it went to war with fellow former Soviet republic Georgia in 2008. 
 
 A day after gunmen seized the Ukrainian parliament and raised the Russian flag, a representative of Turchinov in Crimea said 13 Russian aircraft had landed on the Black Sea peninsula with 150 personnel on board each one. 
 
 More than 10 Russian military helicopters flew over Crimea and Russian servicemen blockaded a unit of the Ukrainian border guard in the port city of Sevastopol, the guard said. 
 
 A serviceman at the scene confirmed to Reuters he was from Russia's Black Sea Fleet, part of which is based in Sevastopol, and said they were there to stop the kind of protests that ousted Yanukovich in Kiev. 
 
 Some witnesses also reported seeing Russian armored personnel carriers and at least one warship on patrol. 
 
 The fleet denied its forces were involved in seizing the military airport near Sevastopol, where armed men later also occupied the runway, and a supporter described the armed group at the civilian international airport in Simferopol as Crimean militiamen. Ukraine's commercial airline said later that it had been refused entry into Crimean airspace. 
 
 Moscow has promised to defend the interests of its citizens in Ukraine. It has said it will not intervene by force, but its rhetoric since the removal of Yanukovich a week ago has echoed the run-up to its invasion of Georgia. 
 
 Any armed confrontation in Crimea would have major global repercussions, with Russia and the West already at odds over the change of power in Ukraine and supporting opposite sides in Syria's civil war. They have, however, pledged to cooperate to prop up Ukraine's faltering economy. 
 
 The U.N. Security Council called an emergency session for later on Friday at the request of Ukraine's new leaders, who warned the country's territorial integrity was threatened. Turchinov said he would not give in to "provocations". 
 
 KREMLIN ROLE 
 
 Ukraine's top security official, Andriy Paruby, said the armed men in Crimea were taking their orders from the top in Russia. "These are separate groups ... commanded by the Kremlin," Paruby, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, told a televised briefing in Kiev. 
 
 One of the options being considered was declaring a state of emergency in Crimea, he added. 
 
 The United States warned all parties not to inflame the situation and said it had raised the issue of the reported armed takeovers of the airports with Russia. U.S. officials were seeking clarification of the origin of the armed men. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Moscow, which put 150,000 troops on high alert on Wednesday for war games near Ukraine's border, had told him it had no intention of violating Ukraine's sovereignty. 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine's new leaders should implement a political deal brokered by the European Union before Yanukovich's ouster. 
 
 The Russian Foreign ministry said on its Facebook page that Russia's Consulate General in Crimea would hand out Russian passports to the servicemen of Ukraine's now-disbanded Berkut riot police. Protestors had accused the Berkut of firing the live bullets that killed dozens of protesters in Kiev. 
 
 ALL MEANS 
 
 Yanukovich - who is wanted by the new, pro-Europe government for mass murder after the protesters' deaths - reappeared in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. The new authorities in Kiev started moves to seek his extradition. 
 
 Yanukovich said he had not seen Russian President Vladimir Putin but had spoken to him by telephone and was surprised the Russian leader was not more vocal on the crisis. 
 
 "Russia cannot be indifferent, cannot be a bystander watching the fate of as close a partner as Ukraine," Yanukovich told a news conference. "Russia must use all means at its disposal to end the chaos and terror gripping Ukraine." 
 
 He denied he had run away, saying he had been forced to leave Kiev due to threats and denounced "lawlessness, terror, anarchy and chaos" in the country and said he had not ordered the shooting of demonstrators that preceeded his fall. 
 
 Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein moved to freeze assets and bank accounts of up to 20 Ukrainians including Yanukovich and his son. Yanukovich said talk of foreign bank accounts was "empty chatter". 
 
 Ukraine's new rulers have said loans worth $37 billion went missing from state accounts during Yanukovich's three years in power - a jaw-dropping sum even for a population now used to tales of a lavish lifestyle and opulent residence outside Kiev. 
 
 The new Ukrainian leadership has said the country needs almost as much as that - $35 billion - over the next two years to stave off bankruptcy. It said on Friday it hoped to get financial aid soon and was prepared to fulfill the reform criteria of the International Monetary Fund to get it. 
 
 IMF chief Christine Lagarde said she did not see anything on the economic front worthy of panic and urged the leadership to refrain from throwing numbers about she said were meaningless until properly assessed. 
 
 ARMED INVASION 
 
 Interior Minister Arsen Avakov accused Russian naval forces of taking over a military airport near the port of Sevastopol, where the Black Sea fleet has a base, and other Russian forces of seizing Simferopol's civilian international airport. 
 
 "I consider what has happened to be an armed invasion and occupation in violation of all international agreements and norms," Avakov said on his Facebook page. 
 
 This met with a Russian naval denial of involvement in the military airport action. "No Black Sea Fleet units have moved toward (the airport), let alone taking any part in blockading it," Interfax quoted a spokesman for the fleet as saying. 
 
 Near the military airport, half a dozen men in camouflage uniforms with automatic rifles were blocking the road using a truck with no license plates. Reporters were kept from approaching them by volunteer militia, who formed a second road block about 150 meters away. 
 
 "Of course they are Russian," said Maxim Lovinetsky, 23, one of the volunteers. "They came last night." 
 
 Firebrand Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky appeared in Sevastopol where a crowd outside the city administration gave him a hero's welcome, shouting "Russia, thank you!". 
 
 "If the people have a right to rise up in a revolt and overthrow the authorities, why doesn't Sevastopol have a right to do that?" he told them. Although nominally part of the Russian opposition, he is widely seen as a servant of Kremlin policy, used to float radical opinions to test public reaction. 
 
 AVOIDING PROVOCATIONS 
 
 The United States has told Russia to show in the next few days that it is sincere about a promise not to intervene in Ukraine, saying using force would be a grave mistake. 
 
 The Kremlin said Putin had ordered his government to continue talks with Ukraine on economic and trade relations and to consult foreign partners including the International Monetary Fund on financial aid. 
 
 Yanukovich provoked protests in Ukraine in November by backing out of plans to sign landmark deals with the European Union and instead saying Kiev would seek closer economic and trade ties with its former Soviet master Russia. 
 
 Ukraine's hryvnia rose on Friday from historic lows after the central bank governor limited access to foreign currencies. Dealers said the hryvnia was trading around 9.80-10.10 to the dollar after weakening as far as 11.20-10.10 on Thursday. The hryvnia had been in freefall as investors worried about Kiev's ability to repay its debts. 
 
 Kiev's new rulers have said any movement by Russian forces beyond the base in Sevastopol would be tantamount to aggression. But they face a major challenge in Crimea which was Russian territory until it was transferred to Ukraine in 1954, during the Soviet era. Separatism there has often flared up at times of tension between Moscow and Kiev. 
 
 Armed men took control of Simferopol airport overnight and a Reuters eyewitness said the men, dressed in full battle gear and carrying assault rifles and machine guns, were moving freely in and out of the control tower. 
 
 A man called Vladimir, who said he was a volunteer helping the group, said: "We're simple people, volunteers ... We're here at the airport to maintain order." 
 
 (Additional reporting by Piotr Pilat in Simferopol, Natalia Zinets and Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Silke Koltrowitz in Zurich, Michael Shields, Derek Brooks and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, Brian Love in Paris and Alexei Anishchuk and Elizabeth Piper in Moscow; writing by Timothy Heritage, Richard Balmforth and David Stamp; editing by Will Waterman and Philippa Fletcher) ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ben Brown in Simferopol: "Likely to be a huge landslide for Crimea being part of Russia" 
 
 Russia has vetoed a draft UN resolution criticising Sunday's secession referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region - the only Security Council member to vote against the measure. 
 
 China, regarded as a Russian ally on the issue, abstained from the vote. 
 
 Western powers criticised Russia's veto over the referendum, which will ask Crimeans if they want to rejoin Russia. 
 
 Meanwhile, Kiev has accused Russian forces of seizing a village just north of Crimea and demanded they withdraw. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Russia's envoy told the Security Council he would vote against the resolution 
 
 Ukraine's foreign ministry said 80 military personnel backed by four helicopter gunships and three armoured vehicles had taken the village of Strilkove. 
 
 An unnamed Russian official quoted by Pravda-Ukraine said they had taken action to protect a gas distribution station from "terrorist attacks". 
 
 Russia intervened in the Crimean peninsula after the fall of Ukraine's pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Ukraine's military has checkpoints in the Kherson region where the alleged attack happened 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption In the eastern city of Donetsk, pro-Moscow protesters smashed windows at the local security service HQ 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The US and Russian envoys met shortly before a fiery debate in the Security Council 
 
 Mr Yanukovych had sparked months of unrest across Ukraine by pulling out of a deal on closer ties with the European Union, and later opting for closer ties with Russia. 
 
 Crisis timeline 21 Nov 2013: President Viktor Yanukovych abandons an EU deal 
 
 President Viktor Yanukovych abandons an EU deal Dec: Pro-EU protesters occupy Kiev city hall and Independence Square 
 
 Pro-EU protesters occupy Kiev city hall and Independence Square 20 Feb 2014: At least 88 people killed in 48 hours of bloodshed in Kiev 
 
 At least 88 people killed in 48 hours of bloodshed in Kiev 22 Feb: Mr Yanukovych flees; parliament votes to remove him and calls election 
 
 Mr Yanukovych flees; parliament votes to remove him and calls election 27-28 Feb: Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in Crimean capital Simferopol 
 
 Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in Crimean capital Simferopol 6 Mar: Crimea's parliament asks to join Russia and sets referendum for 16 March Law and order breakdown Is Russian intervention legal? 
 
 The Crimean region was part of Russia until 1954 and most of its residents are ethnic Russians, many of whom would prefer to be governed by Moscow rather than Kiev. 
 
 Russia's Black Sea fleet is also still housed in Crimea. 
 
 But Russia has signed agreements promising to uphold Ukraine's territorial integrity. 
 
 Crimea's regional parliament instigated the secession referendum after MPs voted overwhelmingly to support rejoining Russia. 
 
 But the national parliament in Kiev ruled the referendum unconstitutional, and earlier on Saturday voted to disband the regional assembly. 
 
 At the United Nations, 13 members of the Security Council backed a resolution that called for all nations to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and condemned the referendum as illegal. 
 
 Western diplomats had expected Russia to veto the document, but got what they wanted when China abstained, says the BBC UN correspondent Nick Bryant. 
 
 China and Russia usually work in tandem at the Security Council. 
 
 But Beijing is sensitive about issues of territorial integrity, because of fears it could send a message to its own restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, our correspondent says. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Protesters gathered in Moscow to object to Crimea intervention - the biggest anti-Putin rally for two years 
 
 America's UN envoy Samantha Power said it was a "sad and remarkable moment" and labelled Russia "isolated, alone and wrong". 
 
 At the scene This was one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Moscow for two years, with tens of thousands of protestors marching from Pushkin Square to a broad avenue nearby for a rally. Unusually the government granted permission for the demonstration to take place and for up to 50,000 people to take part. Many said they were ashamed at Russia's intervention in Ukraine with one man telling the BBC he had reached the point where he felt he could no longer live in his own country. Just a few kilometres away near the Kremlin, there was a rally in support of President Putin's policy in Ukraine. Here, speakers said the Russian government had reacted mildly to the actions of what they called bandits in Ukraine who had usurped power. The speakers also insisted they would not allow a protest movement like that in Ukraine which overthrew the government there, to take place in Russia. 
 
 She said Sunday's referendum was "illegal, unjustified and divisive" and would have no effect on the legal status of Crimea. 
 
 Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin said the referendum was necessary to fill the "legal vacuum" since Ukraine's "coup d'etat" last month. 
 
 Earlier in Moscow, tens of thousands rallied against Russia's actions in Ukraine, the biggest such protest in two years. 
 
 As many as 50,000 attended the rally, with protesters shouting: "Hands off Ukraine." 
 
 One man told the BBC he felt Russia was turning back to the days of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. 
 
 Nearby, some 15,000 supporters of President Vladimir Putin came out to support the Crimean referendum. 
 
 Many of them wore identical red outfits and carried Russian and Soviet flags 
 
 "We are for friendship of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. We want to say a firm 'No' to the fascist junta that came to power in Ukraine," one man said. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Steve Rosenberg: "The war of words between east and west continues" 
 
 The Ukraine authorities say they have seized back control of the regional administration building in the eastern city of Kharkiv from pro-Russia separatists. 
 
 They say they hope buildings in Luhansk and Donetsk will be freed shortly as well. 
 
 On Monday, pro-Russia demonstrators seized government buildings in the three cities. 
 
 Russia recently annexed the peninsula of Crimea following a referendum. 
 
 Kiev and the West say the referendum in the territory, where the majority of people are Russian speakers, was illegal. 
 
 Moscow has thousands of troops massed along its border with eastern Ukraine. 
 
 Although it insists it has no intention of invading Ukraine, it says it reserves the right to defend ethnic Russians in the country. 
 
 Ukraine Deputy Foreign Minister Danylo Lubkivsky has told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the situation in eastern Ukraine was "under control but remains dangerous". 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Interior ministry troops block a group of pro-Russia protesters in Kharkiv 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pro-Russia protesters gather at a barricade outside the offices of the SBU state security service in Luhansk 
 
 Image caption Barricades can also be seen outside the Donetsk regional administration building 
 
 Image caption In the seized building in Donetsk, the man on the left says pro-Russia activists are "modern-day Oliver Cromwells", reports the BBC's Steve Rosenberg 
 
 Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov says several Ukrainian policemen have been injured in the operation to free the Kharkiv regional state administration. 
 
 Some 70 people were held without shots being fired, Ukraine's interior ministry said in a statement. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lawmakers traded blows at Ukraine's parliament in Kiev 
 
 Mr Turchynov said those who seized the buildings would be treated as "terrorists and criminals" who would be prosecuted with the full force of the law. 
 
 Rebels occupying Donetsk's regional government building on Monday declared a "people's republic" and called for a referendum on secession from Ukraine to be held by 11 May. 
 
 There have been talks overnight in Donetsk between the authorities and pro-Russian activists who had occupied the regional administration building. 
 
 On Tuesday, Russia warned Ukraine to stop any military preparations, with the Russian foreign ministry saying in a statement that such preparations risked causing a civil war. 
 
 Russia is refusing to recognise the new authorities in Kiev who took power after pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February. 
 
 'Whipping up tension' 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: "I urge Russia to step back" 
 
 Nato's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned Russia that if it were to "intervene further in Ukraine it would be a historic mistake with grave consequences for our relationship with Russia and it would further isolate Russia internationally", he told the BBC. 
 
 Moscow denies orchestrating instability and separatist sentiment in Ukraine's industrial heartland. 
 
 In an article on the website of the UK's Guardian newspaper, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned what he described as the "groundless whipping up of tension" - he said the West was to blame for what was happening , because it had tried to force Ukraine to make a choice between east or west. 
 
 He also warned authorities in Kiev against any use of force against pro-Russian demonstrators. 
 
 On Tuesday, the Russian foreign ministry alleged that Ukraine was deploying "US mercenaries" from a private security firm dressed as Ukrainian special forces - but there has been no confirmation of that, says the BBC's Steven Rosenberg in Donetsk. 
 
 This is part of the continuing war of words between Russia and the West, our correspondent says. 
 
 But amid the war or words, there is still some talk of diplomacy, our correspondent adds: senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union are expected to meet within the next 10 days in an effort to defuse the tension. 
 
 The US and the EU have already imposed targeted sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian individuals over the annexation of Crimea. 
 
 BBC Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford says that although events in Donetsk appear similar to those in Crimea, there are major differences. 
 
 Donetsk has many Ukrainian speakers as well as a Russian-speaking majority, and opinion polls there have shown considerable support for a united Ukraine, he says. 
 
 Eastern Ukraine was the political heartland of Mr Yanukovych and has a large Russian-speaking population. 
 
 Mr Yanukovych fled Kiev for Russia after months of street protests triggered by his refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia. More than 100 people died in the ensuing unrest. ||||| A number of seriously ill patients remain in the seized hospital in Simferopol, reports say 
 
 Armed men - said to be Russian troops and local militias - have seized a military hospital in Crimea, as Moscow tightens its grip on Ukraine's region. 
 
 The attackers marched into the hospital in the regional capital Simferopol, threatening staff and some 30 patients. 
 
 Pro-Russian troops are also blockading Ukrainian troops across Crimea. 
 
 The latest moves come ahead of Sunday's secession referendum in the autonomous region. Kiev and the Western nations describe the vote as illegal. 
 
 In other developments on Monday: 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow will send its "counter-proposals" to Washington to try to resolve the Ukraine crisis; the US earlier proposed to set up a contact group, renew direct Kiev-Moscow talks and also urged Russia to pull its troops in Crimea back to their bases 
 
 In a phone call, US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping urge Russia to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity 
 
 Russia's former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade behind bars, tells students in Kiev that Russia has severely violated international law by deploying troops in Crimea 
 
 'New directors' 
 
 Up to 30 men in military uniforms - some with truncheons - broke into the hospital, where Ukrainian soldiers and veterans were being treated. Some of the patients are reported to be seriously ill. 
 
 Armed men continue to blockade Ukrainian troops at their bases in Crimea 
 
 Crimea's pro-Russian authorities are urging local residents to "stop fascism" from Ukraine in the referendum - a claim firmly denied by Kiev 
 
 The hospital director said he was forced onto a bus and kept there for half-an-hour. 
 
 The attackers also herded staff into a reception to apparently meet "the new directors", Ukraine's Interfax-Ukraina news agency reports. 
 
 Separately, pro-Russian troops tried to capture a military transport base in Bahkchysarai, a town between Simferopol and Sevastopol. 
 
 The gunmen fired warning shots into the air, but Ukrainian soldiers repelled the attack. The negotiations are reportedly still continuing. 
 
 Crisis timeline 21 November 2013: President Viktor Yanukovych abandons deal on closer ties with EU in favour of closer co-operation with Russia 
 
 President Viktor Yanukovych abandons deal on closer ties with EU in favour of closer co-operation with Russia December 2013: Pro-EU protesters occupy Kiev city hall and Independence Square 
 
 Pro-EU protesters occupy Kiev city hall and Independence Square 20 February 2014: At least 88 people killed in 48 hours of bloodshed in Kiev 
 
 At least 88 people killed in 48 hours of bloodshed in Kiev 21 February: President Yanukovych signs compromise deal with opposition leaders 
 
 President Yanukovych signs compromise deal with opposition leaders 22 February: President Yanukovych flees Kiev. Parliament votes to remove him and sets elections for 25 May 
 
 President Yanukovych flees Kiev. Parliament votes to remove him and sets elections for 25 May 27-28 February: Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in Crimean capital Simferopol 
 
 Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in Crimean capital Simferopol 1 March: Russian parliament approves President Vladimir Putin's request to use Russian forces in Ukraine 
 
 Russian parliament approves President Vladimir Putin's request to use Russian forces in Ukraine 6 March: Crimea's parliament asks to join Russia and sets referendum for 16 March Law and order breakdown in Crimea Is Russian intervention legal? 
 
 Step-by-step, and meeting very little resistance, the pro-Russian troops are dismantling Ukraine's ability to resist in Crimea, reports the BBC's Christian Fraser, who is in the region. 
 
 Moscow has officially denied that its troops are taking part in the blockades, describing armed men with no insignia as Crimea's "self-defence" forces. 
 
 The government in Kiev - as well as the US and EU - accuse Russia of invading Ukraine, in violation of international law. 
 
 'Shameful silence' 
 
 Earlier on Monday, the Russian foreign ministry condemned "lawlessness" in eastern Ukraine, blaming far-right militants for "conniving" with the Kiev authorities. 
 
 In a statement, the ministry said the "well-equipped" gunmen opened fire on "peaceful protesters" in the eastern city of Kharkiv on 8 March. 
 
 The city has recently witnessed mass rival rallies, some of which were violent. 
 
 However, local Kharkiv police say they are treating the alleged shooting as a minor incident, according to Reuters. 
 
 The Russian statement also said the seven Russian journalists had been detained by police in Dnipropetrovsk, also in the east, who accused them of being interested only in "separate provocative stories". 
 
 "The Ukrainian authorities, in violation of all existing bilateral treaties, are not letting Russian citizens into the territory of Ukraine," the statement added. 
 
 And it also voiced Moscow's surprise over "the shameful silence of our Western partners, human rights groups and foreign media". 
 
 Ukraine has in the past firmly denied similar Russian allegations, instead accusing Moscow of distorting facts to justify its continuing military presence in Crimea. 
 
 Kiev points out that monitors of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe have recently been prevented by pro-Russian militia groups from entering Crimea and a number of journalists have been beaten up by militias in the autonomous region. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted he has the right to protect Russian interests and the rights of ethnic Russians there. 
 
 On Sunday, he also defended the moves by Crimea's authorities to stage the referendum on 16 March. Mr Putin said "the steps taken by Crimea's legitimate authorities are based on international law". 
 
 However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told him in a phone call that she considered the vote illegal. 
 
 Both EU leaders and the US have warned Moscow they would slap even tougher sanctions if Russian troops remained in Crimea. 
 
 Unrest in Ukraine erupted in November after former President Viktor Yanukovych's last-minute rejection of a landmark EU deal in favour of a bailout from Russia. 
 
 Mr Yanukovych was ousted last month, and a new government has been voted in by the Ukrainian parliament. ||||| SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Russian military were blocking an airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea near the Russian naval base while unidentified men were patrolling another airport serving the regional capital, Ukraine's new Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Friday. 
 
 An unidentified armed man patrols a square in front of the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings occupied the airport in the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Unidentified armed men guard a building at the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in Russian-style military uniforms occupied the airport in the capital of Ukraine's... (Associated Press) 
 
 Unidentified armed men patrol a square in front of the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings occupied the airport in the capital... (Associated Press) 
 
 An unidentified armed man patrols a square in front of the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings occupied the airport in the... (Associated Press) 
 
 An unidentified armed man guards a building at the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings patroled the airport in the capital... (Associated Press) 
 
 An unidentified armed man patrols a square in front of the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings occupied the airport in... (Associated Press) 
 
 Unidentified armed men guard a building at the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in Russian-style military uniforms occupied the airport in the capital of Ukraine's... (Associated Press) 
 
 An unidentified armed man patrols a square in front of the airport in Simferopol, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings occupied the airport in the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Avakov wrote in a Facebook post that the Belbek international airport in Sevastopol was blocked by military units of the Russian navy. 
 
 "I can only describe this as a military invasion and occupation," Avakov said. 
 
 The Russian foreign ministry refused to comment while a spokesman for the Russian defense ministry was not available for comment. 
 
 Early on Friday, dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings were seen patrolling the airport in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea. 
 
 An Associated Press photographer saw military men armed with assault rifles Friday morning patrolling the airport. The men, who were wearing uniforms without any insignia, refused to talk to journalists, and it was not immediately clear who they were. 
 
 On Thursday, masked gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles seized the parliament and government offices in Simferopol and raised the Russian flag over the parliament building. 
 
 The events in the Crimea region have heightened tensions with neighboring Russia. It scrambled fighter jets on Thursday to patrol borders in the first stirrings of a potentially dangerous confrontation reminiscent of Cold War brinksmanship. 
 
 Russia also has granted shelter to Ukraine's fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, after recent deadly protests in Kiev swept in a new government. 
 
 Yanukovych has a news conference scheduled Friday in Russia's south near the Ukrainian border. He has not been seen publicly since Saturday, and he declared Thursday in a statement that he remains Ukraine's legitimate president. 
 
 Ukraine's parliament on Thursday elected a new government led by a pro-Western technocrat who promptly pledged to prevent any national break-up. 
 
 Moscow has been sending mixed signals about Ukraine but pledged to respect its territorial integrity. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long dreamed of pulling Ukraine, a country of 46 million people considered the cradle of Russian civilization, closer into Moscow's orbit. 
 
 Ukraine's population is divided in loyalties between Russia and the West. Crimea, which was seized by Russian forces in the 18th century under Catherine the Great, was once the crown jewel in Russian and then Soviet empires. 
 
 It only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from Russia, a move that was a mere formality until the 1991 Soviet collapse meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine. 
 
 In a bid to shore up Ukraine's fledgling administration, the International Monetary Fund has said it is "ready to respond" to Ukraine's bid for financial assistance. The European Union is also considering emergency loans for a country that is the chief conduit of Russian natural gas to western Europe. 
 
 Ukraine's finance ministry has said it needs $35 billion over the next two years to avoid default. 
 
 __ 
 
 Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report from Moscow.
– More ominous developments in Crimea: Armed men have blockaded two airports in the peninsula, a day after pro-Russian gunmen took control of the regional parliament building. There are conflicting reports on who the airport gunmen are and whether they have actually taken control of the airports. At the airport in Simferopol, the Crimean capital, dozens of gunmen in unmarked military uniforms have been seen patrolling the area. "We are checking to make sure that no radicals come to Crimea from Kiev, from the Ukraine," one gunman told reporters. Flights there appear to be operating normally, CNN finds, but the Wall Street Journal reports that the other airport, Sevastopol's Belbek Airport, has been closed. Ukraine's interior minister blames Russian military units, calling this "a military invasion and occupation," the AP reports. More from Ukraine: Ethnic Russians are a majority in the Ukrainian region, which is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet, and the US has told Russia to show it is sincere about its promise not to intervene militarily, Reuters reports. "We believe that everybody now needs to take a step back and avoid any kind of provocations," John Kerry said. Ukraine's parliament also passed a resolution today demanding Russia cease any activity that could be considered an attack, CNN reports. Ousted Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich, meanwhile, has surfaced in Russia, still proclaiming himself to be Ukraine's legitimate president. At a press conference today held in a Russian city near the Ukraine border, he insisted he was "not overthrown" but was forced to flee Ukraine in fear for his life, the BBC reports. He called the current parliament "illegitimate" and promised to continue fighting "against terror and fear." In Simferopol, it's not clear whether gunmen are still in control of the regional parliament building, though what the New York Times calls a "well-orchestrated power grab by pro-Russian forces" appears to have taken place across the city. Legislators held a session after the building was occupied and voted to hold a referendum this May that will decide whether to declare Crimea sovereign. CNN says the government buildings in Simferopol were still "under siege" today.