Ukraine's president remained in hiding Monday with a mass murder arrest warrant on his head as Russia said the turmoil in Ukraine represented a threat to its own citizens.
Viktor Yanukovych was last seen in the pro-Russia region of Crimea on Sunday when he relinquished his official security detail and shut down communication, Interior Minister Arsen Avakhov said. He said Yanukovych and his aides were all being investigated for murder in anti-government protests in which more than 100 died.
Meanwhile, the parliament in Kiev set new elections of May, well ahead of the December ones that Yanukovych had agreed to, and it reached out to Europe and the West for financial assistance for its ailing economy.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday with Ukraine parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchinov, the country's acting president who said he hoped to form a unity government by Tuesday to calm a nation jittery over Russian threats and angry about an apparent lavish lifestyle led by the ousted regime.
"I wish he would be punished for all he did, all the blood he shed," said grandmother Tamara Pokyska, who was lining up to board a bus for a tour of Yanukovych's compound near Kiev.
"I was here from the first day and I was here with my grandson when they burned the square and I can't forget it," she said, crying.
"He should be executed," said Stanislaw Castaca, a volunteer at a clothes distribution point for protesters. "But we should also thank him – he united the people in different regions – places that don't normally get along – against him."
Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev questioned the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities on Monday and alleged that the new regime in Ukraine came to power as a result of "armed mutiny."
He lashed out at what he called the European Union's recognition of the new authorities as an "aberration of consciousness." He said Russia would be ready to resume relations with Ukraine once it sees a "normal, modern government based on laws and constitution of Ukraine."
"If you consider Kalashnikov-toting people in black masks who are roaming Kiev to be the government, then it will be hard for us to work with that government," he said.
He said Russia's decision to recall its ambassador in Kiev for consultations meant that "there is a threat for our interests, and for life and health of our people in the embassy."
But the new government in Ukraine was approved in a vote by a vast majority of the elected parliament, including many members of Yanukovych's ruling party. Those with the guns in the streets for months have been the government troops and its irregular forces, not protesters.
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