including the u.s. are headed to crimea and they may be putting their lives on the line. just yesterday, the u.n. s special envoy to crimea robert serry, abandoned his mission after an encounter with pro-russia militias. crimea remains under russian control this morning. we re just learning that russian forces have scuttled an old warship in an inlet, trapping as many as seven ukrainian naval vessels vessels, while two other heavily armed ukrainian ships remain blocked from leaving port by russian vessels. then the breaking news now. in ten days the people of crimea will be asked to decide in a referendum whether they want to stay part of ukraine or join russia. they will vote on whether they can join russia. that is a very very big deal and i think a little bit unexpected. at this moment ukrainian riot police are in a tense standoff with pro-russian demonstrators in the southern ukraine port city of odessa a very historic city. our matthew chance is there.
putin. u.s. secretary of state john king met face-to-face with russia s foreign minister lavrov, telling him it s time for russia to deescalate the situation. meanwhile, the situation on the ground in crimea remains tense. a u.n. envoy was forced to leave the country. he was confronted by armed men, ordered into a car by gunman. he refused. a reporter tweeted this photo of him before police escorted him to the airport. this is just a snapshot how tense and on the verge of things are in crimea tonight. our anna corn is there. anna, what can you tell us about these armed militias on the ground? reporter: they are certainly everywhere here in crimea. obviously we saw what happened to robert serry a little earlier this evening and it really
particular seems a little less willing, a little less gung ho when it comes to the idea of hitting russian quickly with heavy economic sanctions, wolf. so the tension in moscow clearly a palpable, as well. let s see what happens. phil, we ll check back with you. we re waiting for the secretary of state, john kerry, to emerge from his meeting with the russian foreign, sergey lavrov. we expect kerry to make a statement. will it be positive? will it be negative? we re also waiting for more information on the breaking news. a united nations envoy in ukraine, in crimea specifically. there you see him right there. robert serry. he was detained. we ll tell you what s going on. stay with us. [ man ] look how beautiful it is.
diplomats talk or don t talk on the ground, tensions are boiling over. today u.n. envoy robert serry attacked by an armed mob as he attempted to visit crimea. russia, russia they chanted. serry was forced to take refuge in a cafe. as militia blockaded him inside. and when i left my car was blocked, and they and i and somebody who did not identify himself was telling me e that he had orders to bring me immediately to the airport. i refused. reporter: six days into the crisis, u.s. lawmakers are now asking why the administration didn t see russian military intervention coming. the fact is, mr. secretary, it was not predicted by our intelligence and that s already been well-known, which is another massive failure because of our misreading, total misreading of the intentions of
s simferopol. and as you mentioned in your introduction, he agreed to leave, to quit his post here in ukraine. he is, of course, the special envoy to ukraine. quit his post and leave the country to try and deescalate the situation. we don t know why these local militia had such a problem with robert serry. but you would have to assume, these local militia are pro-russian. obviously, whatever robert serry was saying didn t seem to agree with these local militia. so they have ordered him to the airport. he is there now, due to catch his flight out of ukraine. and as we mentioned, try and deescalate the situation, wolf. very tense situation. underscored by that incident. i want to get back to you, anna. stand by. in the meantime, the top diplomats for the united states and russia, that would be john kerry and sergey lavrov, huddled