Dozens of despondent Ukrainian soldiers -- one of them in tears -- filed out of the Ukraine's main navy headquarters in the historic Black Sea port city of Sevastopol after it was stormed by hundreds of pro-Kremlin protesters and masked Russian troops.
"We have been temporarily disbanded," a Ukrainian lieutenant who identified himself only as Vlad told AFP.
"I was born here and I grew up here and I have been serving for 20 years," he said as a Russian flag went up over the base without a single shot being fired in its defence. "Where am I going to go?"
A regional prosecutor's statement said Gayduk was suspected of "ordering Ukrainian military units... To open fire on peaceful civilians".
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Defence ministry officials said Russian forces also seized a military base in Crimea's western port town of Novoozerne after using a tractor to ram open its main gate.
An AFP reporter saw about 50 Ukrainian servicemen file out of the base under the watchful eye of Russian soldiers while pro-Moscow militias lowered the Ukrainian flag.