(Vatican Radio) The United Nations envoy to Ukraine, Robert Serry, was threatened
by armed men and forced to leave the region. Serry arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, overnight,
warning of the dangers in Crimea, while foreign ministers of the United States and
Russia had their first face-to-face meeting since the crisis began.
Serry
told reporters that this "serves as a reminder to all how dangerous the situation
has become."
After visiting the headquarters of the Ukrainian navy in Simferopol,
he said his car was surrounded by armed men in camouflage uniforms, who did not identify
themselves.
"Please come as soon as possible now, because I am afraid that
otherwise we...", an anxious-looking Serry said, speaking through a mobile phone with
colleagues.
The Dutchman managed to flee into a cafe where he met British journalists,
while armed men blocked the exits.
ANXIOUS HOURS
"When I left my
car was blocked," he recalled. "And somebody who did not identify himself, was telling
me that he had orders to bring me immediately to the airport. I refused, I sat in
the car. There was a kind of a stand-off."
"At some point these people who
actually took the driver out, put another driver in, tried to put other people in
the car. I managed to get outside of the car and I walked and I found this cafe and
since then I am here," the top diplomat added.
Eventually he was allowed
to leave, accompanied by a pro-Russian crowd. Accompanied by heavily armed men and
he was put on a plane for Istanbul.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov denied Russian forces were involved in military actions outside
the Black Sea bases on Crimea.
SELF-DEFENCE
"Regarding the self-defence
forces, they have been founded by civilians in Crimea. They do not receive orders
from us," said Lavrov.
Lavrov spoke before meeting U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry in Paris, who said they agreed to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
"We
agreed to continue intense discussions in the coming days with Russia [and] with Ukrainians
in order to see how we can help normalise the situation, stabilise it and overcome
the crisis," Kerry told reporters. "All parties agreed today that it is important
to try to resolve these issues through dialogue.”
Tensions remained high however,
as the Russian foreign minister refused to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, though
he had separate meetings with British, French, German and EU representatives.
MINISTERS
TALKING
Ukraine's interim government says some of its ministers already have
begun talks with their Russian counterparts, amid Western threats of sanctions against
Moscow.
Ukraine has received $15 billion in pledges from the EU and $1
billion from the United States to boost its currently troubled economy.
The
new leadership claims billions disappeared under ousted pro-Russian president Viktor
Yanukovich.
The EU announced Thursday that it has frozen the assets of
Yanukovych, his son and 16 other people.
Amid the political and military
turmoil, Ukrainian authorities said the Ukrainian flag once again was seen atop the
regional administrative building that pro-Russian protesters had seized, before leaving
overnight.
International concern has been mounting that the conflict in
Crimea may spread towards pro-Russian regions of the former Soviet republic.