More than 10,000 people carrying Russian flags protested Saturday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the stronghold of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, an AFP journalist said.

Protesters declared they supported "the aspirations of Crimea to rejoin Russia", referring to Ukraine's pro-Russia peninsula further south where Kiev has accused Moscow of launching an "armed invasion."

"Russia! Russia!", they shouted, as demonstrators on the sidelines of the rally distributed leaflets calling on people "not to obey authorities in Kiev."

"We're aghast by what is happening in Kiev. We will not let nationalists enter our city," said Oleksandr, a 40-year-old protester.

This city in eastern Ukraine is a bastion of Kremlin-backed Yanukovych, who was ousted on February 22 following a week of deadly clashes in Kiev, and whose government collapsed entirely, making way for a brand new, pro-West cabinet.

Residents in Ukraine's pro-Russia east and south have looked on the events in the capital with concern. On the Crimea peninsula unidentified armed men have taken over the regional parliament and other government buildings in what Kiev has labelled a Russian "invasion".

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