On August 23, Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said that on August 15, “our plane was actually stolen – he flew to Iran with an unknown group of passengers on board instead of taking out the Ukrainians. ”The next day denied information about the seizure Oleg Nikolenko, speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – he stressed that all the planes that Ukraine attracted to evacuate its citizens from Afghanistan returned safely, and Yenin simply explained the level of difficulties that Ukrainian diplomats faced in organizing the evacuation process.
The minister, in turn, admitted that “I have never experienced anything more difficult than evacuating from Afghanistan in my professional life.” According to him, the departure of each plane “was accompanied by terrible problems” – for example, the plane, near which the Ukrainians gathered, was stormed by others wishing to leave the country, so the stewards had to lock the doors so as not to let the crowd inside. In other cases, intelligence officers who arrived in Afghanistan with a military plane “just grabbed people by the scruffs, pulled Ukrainians out of the crowd so they could get on board.”
In the case of the allegedly stolen plane, according to Kuleba, the private airline violated the agreement.
“They say to the plane: at 6.00 a group of passengers will be brought to you, wait and you will fly out. But at night, they are still running, looking for some opportunity to take off … The plane suddenly starts taxiing and takes off without our citizens,” Kuleba said.
According to him, the plane was literally deployed in the air halfway to Ukraine “due to the fact that there were no Ukrainian citizens on board – they took a dozen of their relatives, members of their families and decided to break the agreement and take out only their relatives.”
Ukraine, the minister noted, refused to accept the aircraft without its citizens.
Ukraine made three evacuation flights from Afghanistan: the first – on the night of August 16, the second – on the night of August 22, the third – in the afternoon of August 23. The first two were evacuated more than 160 people, 36 of them are Ukrainians, during the last – 98 more, including 41 Ukrainians… On August 25, the Foreign Ministry reported that in Afghanistan about 90 Ukrainian citizens remain.
The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated amid the withdrawal of US troops, which started in April 2021 year. By August 15, the Taliban had taken control of virtually the entire country. including the capital Kabul… Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad on the same day.
Against the backdrop of the Taliban offensive, foreign states began to evacuate their citizens. Several countries (including USA, France, Germany, Great Britain) sent their troops to Afghanistan to ensure the safety of the evacuation.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on August 25 that the Taliban want the withdrawal of foreign troops and evacuations to be completed by August 31. After that they will “take a different position”, he is quoted as saying Sky News… On August 17, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shahin also said that the group will not attack US military personnel, but they are obliged to leave Afghanistan before 9/11.
25-26 August USA and UK warned of a possible terrorist attack at the Kabul airport and urged their citizens not to be there. A number of countries have begun to curtail evacuation. However, despite the warnings, August, 26th crowds remained at the airport gates, Reuters reported.
August 26 in Kabul there was a terrorist attack… Near the Kabul airport suicide bomber detonated a bomb, shooting began. Initially, the Pentagon reported two explosions – at the airport gates and near a nearby hotel – and two suicide bombers, but on August 27 denied this information, stating that there was only one explosion… It is known about 170 dead and over 200 wounded.
ISIS claims responsibility for an explosion at the airport gates and shooting.
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