Today, Ukraine's foreign ministry has denied an 'earlier statement' that a Ukrainian aircraft was hijacked at Kabul airport during the evacuation efforts of Afghans and other nationals seeking to flee the Taliban militant group.
“There are no hijacked Ukrainian planes in Kabul or elsewhere. The information about the ‘hijacked plane’ that is being circulated by some media outlets is not true,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, told the local RBC news agency.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Yevhen Yenin informed of two incidents involving its evacuation aircraft over the past week in comments to the Hromadske Radio media organization.
“Last Sunday, our plane was hijacked by third-party individuals who were armed, including with firearms,” Yenin said.
“On Tuesday, a plane was in fact stolen from us. It took off for Iran with an unknown group of passengers on board instead of evacuating Ukrainians,” Yenin said, adding that “our next three attempts to evacuate civilians were also not successful because our passengers could not get to the airport.”
But Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko on Tuesday denied that a Ukrainian aircraft had been hijacked in Kabul, telling Interfax Ukraine that Yenin “was explaining in general the unprecedented level of difficulties that diplomats have had to face in order to evacuate Ukrainians.”
As per Nikolenko, Ukraine has carried out three evacuation flights that have evacuated a total of 256 people from Kabul to Ukraine. The first evacuation aircraft carried 79 Afghans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Tajiks, as well as Croatians and Dutch nationals on Aug. 16, according to Hromadske.
Moscow times sources say , On Sunday morning, it said an Ilyushin Il-76MD military aircraft airlifted 83 people, including 31 Ukrainians. Hromadske Radio reported that a third plane landed landed at Kiev’s Boryspil Airport late Monday, carrying 98 people including 41 Ukrainian nationals.
The outlet said at least 50 Ukrainians remained in Afghanistan after around 200 of them contacted diplomats asking for help in returning home.
Kabul's international airport evacuations on Monday | Photo: Maxar Technologies |
U.S.A acknowledges the efforts of Ukraine, that is assisting the airlift, which in addition to close allies Britain, France, Germany, Denmark and Italy includes Central Asian and Middle Eastern countries.
Almost 50,000 foreigners and Afghans have already fled the country through Kabul's airport since the Taliban swept into power 10 days ago.
Crowds continued to mass outside the airport Tuesday as U.S. troops led an increasingly desperate effort to airlift thousands of people after the Taliban warned of an Aug. 31 deadline to pull out.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his top aides have repeatedly insisted they are aiming to stick to their Aug. 31 deadline, while European and British leaders are calling for more time.
