Kiev: Gunmen were preventing a group of 40 military observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from entering Crimea on Thursday for a monitoring mission, a Western diplomatic source told AFP.
"They are stuck but they are not turning back. They are not being allowed in by two groups of armed people -- very professional, very well-trained," the source said.
The source said the standoff began at around 1100 GMT and quoted the gunmen as saying "they were told not to let in a group but they were not sure if this was the one".
The unarmed observer mission is aimed at defusing tensions in the Ukrainian Black Sea, which was taken over by Russian forces over the weekend.
"It is my hope that this military visit will help to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine," OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said in a statement on Wednesday.
The observers are from 21 of the organisation`s 57 members and had been on their way by road from Odessa in southern Ukraine.
The mission, which is scheduled to last until March 12, had been requested by the new pro-Western authorities in Kiev.
Russia`s envoy to the OSCE, Andrei Kelin, told reporters Monday that earlier missions in breakaway Serbian and Georgian territories Kosovo and South Ossetia had "aggravated the situation".
Washington`s top envoy in Europe, Victoria Nuland, said Monday a monitoring mission would allow Russia in Crimea to "pull its forces back to base and have them replaced by independent monitors".
