Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday slammed the takeover of power in Ukraine by new authorities who deposed president Viktor Yanukovych as an anti-constitutional and armed seizure of power.
"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," he said on live television in his first comments on the crisis since the ousting of Yanukovych.