Rostov-on-Don , March 28 (RHC)-- Ousted Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich has broken his two-week silence and called for a referendum in the former-Soviet state to determine each region's "status within Ukraine".

At a press conference Thursday in southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don Yanukovych said: "As a president who is with you with all my thoughts and soul, I urge every sensible citizen of Ukraine: Don't give in to impostors! Demand a referendum on the status of each region within Ukraine."

Viktor Yanukovych is living in exile in Russia.

“I don’t see how any high-ranking European officials can say that it is normal to have these [pro-Western] activists shooting people and robbing on the streets,” Yanukovych said.

“Only a referendum on the whole of Ukraine in every region can stabilize the political situation, and preserve its independence and unity.”

The toppled leader condemned new Ukrainian elections scheduled for May, in which former President Yulia Tymoshenko is running after her release from prison, and still insists that he is the President of Ukraine.

'He is wanted for mass murder in Ukraine after the bloodshed that ensued during the anti-government protesters when government snipers and police shot more than 100 people,' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Yanukovych as saying.

The Ukraine crisis began when Yanukovich refused to sign a trade association deal with the European Union, signing a customs union deal with Russia instead.