UN envoy forced out of Crimea by hostile pro-Russian crowd
UN special envoy is detained and besieged inside a cafe in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea region by a hostile crowd shouting "Russia! Russia!" A special UN envoy arrived at Semfiropol Airport airport after being threatened by ten to fifteen armed men on Wednesday while visiting Crimea. The UN deputy secretary-general Jan Eliasson denied reports that UN envoy Robert Serry had been kidnapped, but said that armed men had ordered Serry to leave Crimea and go to the airport. Dutch diplomat Robert Serry flew to Istanbul after the incident. His interpreter, Vadim Kastelli, said he was escorted to the airport without being given a chance to pick up his bags from his hotel and placed on the first flight out. Mr Kastelli, who was with Mr Serry at the time, said the incident began when Mr Serry was blocked by a group of men in civilian clothes after a meeting at a Ukrainian military compound. The men insisted they should take Mr Serry straight to the airport and out of the country, but Serry refused and eventually left his surrounded vehicle on foot, said Kastelli, who became separated from Serry when the envoy left the scene. The envoy later took shelter in a cafe and agreed to leave Crimea to end the stand-off. He was then escorted by police through a crowd of about 100 angry demonstrators, some waving Russian flags. Crimea is under control of Russian forces who seized it last week, although Moscow says "self defence" units of men in uniform without insignia are not under its command. Source: APTN and Reuters Get the latest headlines http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Telegraph http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c... Like us on Facebook / telegraph.co.uk Follow us on Twitter / telegraph Follow us on Google+ https://plus.google.com/1028913550727... Telegraph.co.uk and / telegraphtv are websites of The Daily Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.
