Waving the Russian flag and chanting "Russia! Russia!" protesters in Crimea have become the last major bastion of resistance to Ukraine's new rulers.

President Viktor Yanukovych's overthrow Saturday has been accepted across the vast country, even in his power base in the Russian-speaking regions of the east. But Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula attached to the rest of Ukraine by just a narrow strip of land, is alone so far in challenging the new order.

As the only Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, and a home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the strategically important territory is now also the focus of a battle between Russia and the West over the future of Ukraine.