UPDATE 1-Armed men stop UN chief’s representative in Crimea-Ukrainian ministry
(Adds details)
KYIV, March 5 (Reuters) – Armed men stopped a special
representative of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in
Ukraine’s Crimea region on Wednesday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry
said.
U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said Robert Serry
had been threatened but had not been kidnapped.
Serry phoned up Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister and
described the incident as it was unfolding, Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry Press Secretary Yevhen Perebiynis said.
“He said that as he left the headquarters of the navy in
Simferopol, his vehicle was blocked by unknown men in uniform
with weapons, who said they had an order to take him to the
airport. He refused, and they are still holding him.”
Crimea is under the control of Russian military forces,
although Moscow describes its troops there who wear no insignia
on their uniforms as “self-defence” units of the local
administration.
(Reporting by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Peter Graff and
Sonya Hepinstall)