A UN special representative has been forced to leave Ukraine’s Crimea region after being hijacked at gunpoint.<br /><br />Robert Serry was in Crimea on a fact-finding mission.<br /><br />His car was blocked by unknown armed men in uniform, as he left the headquarters of the navy in Simferopol.<br /><br />The men said they had orders to take him to the airport. Serry refused, and walked into to a nearby coffee shop for help, where he called Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister and described what was happening.<br /><br />He was then blockaded in the coffee shop by the armed men, who were described as wearing pro-Russia black and gold arm bands and shouting “Putin, Putin.”<br /><br />Eventually Serry was escorted by police through the crowds having agreed to leave the country and go to the airport.<br /><br />Crimea is under the control of armed forces, who the Ukranian army identify as Russian but who Moscow describes as “self-defence” units of the local administration.
