Speaking on a Russian television station late on Sunday, the ousted president said the United States authorized the new government in Kiev to use force to crack down on protesters in the country’s east.

Yanukovych also warned that Ukraine’s interim officials have taken the country to the brink of a civil war.

He noted that CIA Director John Brennan met with Kiev’s new leaders in person and "in fact sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed," in Ukraine.

Yanukovych added that in the event of any bloodshed, the new interim officials of Ukraine as well as the US administration will be held responsible.

He also urged the country’s security forces not to obey orders and restrain from shooting at people.

Meanwhile, new reports say that at least three people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters during what Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov calls an "anti-terrorist operation” in the eastern town of Slavyansk.

Political crisis erupted in Ukraine in November 2013, when Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Tensions between the Western powers and Moscow heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16, in which nearly 97 percent of voters in Crimea chose to rejoin Russia.

On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law documents that officially made the Black Sea peninsula part of the Russian territory despite condemnation from the West and the new Ukrainian government.

The move sparked angry reactions from the US and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against Russia.

SHI/SHI