Can the dreaded sternly worded letter be far away?
Update:
Chase out the monitors and they can’t report what you do. Sets a great precedent, threaten UN monitors and force them to leave.
Via Kyiv Post:
United Nations peace envoy Robert Serry had to cut short his visit to Crimea after a group of armed pro-Russian militiamen blocked him and threatened in his car in Simferopol, capital city of the peninsula on March 5.
Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, arrived to Ukraine on March 5 after he was asked by UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson the day before “to travel to Crimea to take stock and evaluate the situation there.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry initially said that Serry was kidnapped in Simferopol.
“Serry has just informed us that his car in Simferopol was blocked by unknown people in uniforms and they told him they were under orders to take him to the airport. He refused to go and was seized and is effectivey being held by a group of unknown people as a hostage,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis said.
But later James Mates, editor for ITV news wrote on his twitter that Serry, whose car has been blocked by “protesters chanting Putin, Putin!” went to a coffee shop and stayed there for awhile. Then the envoy agreed to end his mission in Crimea and go to the airport.
More:
Daily Mail notes he was threatened at gun point by 15 men and told to leave Crimea, the men told him they were under orders to escort him to the airport and got into his car.
ITV reporter James Mates and a camera crew, who were in the coffee shop with Mr Serry, were begged not to leave and told their presence would protect him (Serry).
His assistant, Ruth Sigalus, said: ‘No, no, no. Don’t leave. Please.’ And Mr Serry told them: ‘Appreciate you being here.’
ITV News reported that some of the men who had threatened him outside the café were dressed in paramilitary uniform, and some were armed.
Speaking after being escorted away from the area to the airport, Mr Serry told ITV: ‘I think this incident is just an example of how serious the situation has become.
‘And my hope is that everybody will realise that the situation is very urgent now – to find a way to deescalate the tensions here.’
Here’s actual video from James Mates inside the cafe interviewing the UN Envoy Mr. Serry with his assistant, Ruth Sigalus, as they negotiate to get him out of there safely. Sigalus identifies the “threatening men” as wearing the same outfits as the Russian soldiers.