UN envoy to leave Ukraine on Saturday after mission cut short

UN special envoy to Ukraine Robert Serry "is continuing his consultations with Ukrainian and diplomatic interlocutors in Kiev today," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said here Friday, adding that he will leave the Ukrainian capital on Saturday. "He will then return to Jerusalem next week where he is based as the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing here. "At this stage, it is not yet known when he will return to Ukraine. But he will continue to assist the secretary-general, as required, in his good offices to promote urgently needed de- escalation and a peaceful political resolution of the country's current crisis," he added. Serry was dispatched last week by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon to Ukraine and went to the crisis-gripped Crimea to take stock of and evaluate the situation in the heavily ethnic Russian region of southern Ukraine. He left Kiev for Crimea late Tuesday. However, his peace mission was disrupted on Wednesday when a group of armed men blocked his car in Crimea, forcing him to flee on foot. "He is in good shape physically," Deputy UN Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told reporters here Wednesday via an audio link from Kiev. "He was not kidnapped but he feels seriously threatened" by "a mixed group of 10-15 men with varying degrees of arms," Eliasson said after Serry telephoned him from a cafe in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea. On Thursday afternoon, Eliasson briefed the UN Security Council by video that UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, arrived in Kiev on Thursday. "During his eight-day visit, Mr. Simonovic plans to meet authorities and state officials in Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Simferopol, as well as the Ombudsman, and civil society organizations at central and regional levels," Nesirky said. "Mr. Simonovic will also liaise with regional organizations active in Ukraine." He would lead a fact-finding mission to look into all pressing human rights issues, including the killings at Maidan Square, the spokesman said, expressing the hope that the team would have the access it needs to look into all relevant matters. The spokesman described the announcement of a referendum on Crimea's future status as a worrying and serious development. "In this regard, the secretary-general urges the authorities in Ukraine, including in Crimea, to treat this matter with calm," he said. Nesirky said that all concerned should think about the implications of any hasty actions or decisions taken in this highly-charged moment. "The Secretary-General cannot emphasize enough the need for peace and stability in the region." Asked how the crisis in Ukraine could affect diplomacy on Syria, the spokesman said that "the two issues were entirely separate," noting the U.S. and Russian governments are cooperating to push for an international peace conference on Syria.