Gunmen prevented a group of 40 European observers on a fact-finding mission from entering Crimea on Thursday.<br /><br />They were travelling by road from Odessa, a port on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, towards Crimea, when they were detained by unidentified men in army uniform.<br /><br />The group of observers from 21 Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) countries is supposed to be in Ukraine from March 5 to March 12.<br /><br />Earlier the Crimean parliament said a decree making the region part of Russia was already in force and that any Ukrainian troops were now occupiers and must surrender or leave.<br /><br />Uniformed men, believed to be Russian troops, although this is denied by Moscow, have been surrounding Ukrainian military bases for almost a week.<br /><br />While many demonstrations in Ukraine’s Crimea support Russia’s intervention, there are also those who want Crimea to stay as part of Ukraine.<br /><br />One pro-Ukraine student who tried to speak to reporters was accused by pro-Russians nearby of having come from Kyiv pretending to be Crimean<br /><br />The student said: “I want Crimea to be with Ukraine. I don’t want to join criminal Russia. People, watch television, tell everyone about the real situation here.”<br /><br />She is interrupted by another woman saying: “Go to Maidan and express yourself there.”<br /><br />“I was born and have been living in Simferopol,” she replies.<br /><br />She is then grabbed by a man wearing uniform, and she calls out: “Please film this.”
