MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine's new leadership and said that Western countries which accept it are mistaken, in his first reaction to the transfer of power in Kiev.

"Strictly speaking, there is no one for us to communicate with there today. The legitimacy of a whole number of organs of power that function there raises great doubts," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

"Some of our foreign, Western partners think otherwise.... This is some kind of aberration of perception when people call legitimate what is essentially the result of an armed mutiny," Mr Medvedev said, quoted by Russian news agencies.