Ukrainian Foreign Ministry: Ukrainian plane was hijacked in Afghanistan by armed men
After units of the Taliban (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) entered Kabul on August 15, the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from Afghanistan became fraught with many difficulties. The ups and downs are described by the Ukrainian media and the leaders of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
On August 16, the Ukrainian Il-76MD evacuated 79 people from Kabul, among the evacuees were citizens of Afghanistan, Belarus, the Netherlands, Croatia and Tajikistan. There were only 8 citizens of Ukraine.
However, on August 17, a Ukrainian plane was hijacked by unknown gunmen in Kabul. Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevgeniy Yenin told about this on the air of Ukrainian radio.
Last week, armed men hijacked our plane. On Tuesday, our plane was actually stolen - it flew to Iran with an unknown group of passengers on board instead of taking out the Ukrainians. Our next three attempts to evacuate citizens were also unsuccessful, as passengers were unable to enter the airport.
- he said.
The functionary added that Ukrainian diplomats have been working in a crash test for the entire last week.
The media described the evacuation process, recalling the details. Thus, on August 18, the Taliban did not allow a plane from Ukraine to land at the Kabul airport. They explained this by the fact that they did not know anything about this flight and its purposes. Then they demanded that the Ukrainian side notify the new authorities about the arrival of its planes in a proper manner. Simultaneously стало известноthat the Americans showed great concern for their service dogs, "forgetting" the Ukrainian, Georgian, Bulgarian and Romanian military at their base in Kabul.
On August 22, a military transport aircraft took out 83 people to the territory of Ukraine, including 31 Ukrainians. The next day, 98 people were taken from Afghanistan to Ukraine on a civil flight, of which 41 were Ukrainians.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba wrote on his Twitter account that the Ukrainian plane, which took off from the Afghan capital on August 23, became the last civilian flight, since an hour after its departure, the Kabul airport stopped working. At that time, more than 50 Ukrainian citizens remained on the territory of Afghanistan.
We have solved a million problems for another civilian plane to take off from Kabul with the Ukrainians on board. But we succeeded. 103 people, of which 79 of our citizens and their family members are already safe, are returning to Ukraine. Thanks to every Ukrainian diplomat who made this possible
- After a while, the minister said, making it clear that the evacuation of Ukrainians from Afghanistan was completed.
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