NEW YORK, March 5 (RIA Novosti) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would send a third envoy to Ukraine hours after reports that unidentified armed men ordered one of his emissaries to leave Crimea Wednesday.
“I have decided to dispatch the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Mr. Ivan Simonovic, to Ukraine to visit Kiev and the eastern part of Ukraine, including Crimea, to see and monitor the human rights situation there,” Ban said.
Over the weekend, Simonovic is expected to travel to Crimea, which had refused to recognize the new central government in Kiev.
Thousands of unidentified troops under apparent command from Russia have taken control over Ukrainian military bases across the Crimea over the past week. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Russian troops are already deployed.
The UN News Centre said earlier in the day that special UN Envoy Robert Serry, who was visiting the autonomous republic, was threatened by 10 to 15 armed men on Wednesday as he was leaving naval headquarters in Sevastopol and ordered to go to the airport and leave the region.
Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, who is also in Ukraine, said Serry was unharmed and no kidnapping had taken place.
A UN spokesperson later confirmed that Serry is taking a flight out of Simferopol and will shortly return to Kiev to continue his mission.
