ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Viktor F. Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, appealed for calm on Friday and rejected separatism or forcible intervention from abroad, even by Russia, where he has taken refuge.

Appearing in public for the first time since he fled Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, a week ago, Mr. Yanukovych insisted to a roomful of reporters here that he was still the legitimate president of Ukraine and that lawmakers in Kiev had not taken the steps required by the Constitution to remove him from power.

“Nobody deposed me,” he said in a statement, speaking in Russian. “I had to leave Ukraine because there was a direct and imminent threat to my life.” He said Ukraine had been taken over by nationalist thugs, with the assistance of the West, and called for a restoration of the government he once led.

Mr. Yanukovych said that Crimea, the predominantly ethnic Russian region in the south, should remain part of Ukraine, despite the demonstrations there calling for independence, the talk of a separatist referendum and the groups of armed men who have seized government buildings and airports and raised Russian flags in recent days.