REPORT: Ukraine's Yanukovich has been put on the international wanted list

Ukraine's new authorities say that Yanukovich, who was ousted by parliament on Saturday after three months of street unrest and has gone into hiding, is wanted for 'mass murder' connected with the shooting deaths of protesters during the crisis. 

Meanwhile, NATO defense ministers threw their support behind Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity as the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovich has raised doubts about the country's future.   

"A sovereign, independent and stable Ukraine, firmly committed to democracy and the rule of law, is key to Euro-Atlantic security," the ministers said in a statement issued during their meeting in Brussels. 

"NATO allies will continue to support Ukrainian sovereignty and independence, territorial integrity, democratic development, and the principle of inviolability of frontiers, as key factors of stability and security in central and Eastern Europe and on the continent as a whole," they said. 

Earlier, Interfax news agency reported that one person died, probably from a heart attack, as a large crowd of people protested on Wednesday outside the Crimean regional parliament in Ukraine.   

The dead person had no signs injury, it said.   

A spokesman for Crimean police denied reports that the person had been killed in an explosion in Simferopol, the regional capital.

On another note, the presidential website said Ukraine's acting president Oleksander Turchinov has assumed the duties of head of the armed forces.

The move was announced in a decree published on the website.   

Ukraine's parliament voted on Tuesday to send Yanukovich to the International Criminal Court over police violence against protesters which it said had led to the deaths of more than 100 citizens of Ukraine and other states.
   
Yanukovich is on the run after being toppled by bloody street protests in which police snipers killed demonstrators.

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Russia should respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and should be "very careful" in its judgments toward its neighbor, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday.

"What we need now to do is not get into an old, Cold War confrontation," Kerry told the "Andrea Mitchell Reports" show on MSNBC. "We are not looking for confrontation but we are making it clear that every country should respect the territorial integrity ... of Ukraine. Russia has said it will do that and we think it's important that Russia keeps its word."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on democracy watchdog, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, on Wednesday to "decisively condemn" the rise of "nationalist and neo-fascist" sentiment in western Ukraine.

In a foreign ministry statement, Lavrov also said the OSCE should condemn attempts by nationalists to ban the Russian language in Ukraine.

"Lavrov called on the OSCE to decisively condemn the rise of nationalist and neo-fascist sentiment in the west of the country, (to condemn) calls to ban the Russian language, to turn the Russian-speaking population into 'non-citizens' and to restrict freedom of expression," the ministry said in a statement


REUTERS/AP

To watch Josiane Rahme's report, please click on the VIDEO above