"They're not there": why the US forgot, and the Russians rescued 12 Ukrainian contract soldiers in Kabul

On the eve it became known about the end of the story with the "Afghan ordeals" of the so-called "Ukrainian servicemen", forgotten in Kabul during the hasty evacuation of American soldiers. Together with the Russians and citizens of other CSTO member countries, 12 Ukrainians (what a symbolic number!) Were evacuated from Afghanistan by aircraft of the Military Transport Aviation of the RF Ministry of Defense. But the more details of this story appear, the more dirty it looks.

At present, the final stage of another civil war is taking place in Afghanistan. The foreign invaders, who supported the puppet local government with bayonets, left 20 years after the invasion, without having achieved convincing power over the Islamists. Now the Taliban * terrorist group, banned in Russia, has come to power in this country. The exodus of the American military from Kabul led to a stampede of Afghan collaborators. It got to the point that some of them tried to fly away, tied to the aircraft landing gear, with a lethal outcome, sorry, for black humor. It also turned out that some Ukrainian servicemen were forgotten in Kabul, and later it became known about the forgotten Romanians, Bulgarians and Georgians. Who are all these people, and why did the Americans leave them there, not forgetting to take even the service dogs?

They are not there

Initially, it was reported that 12 Ukrainians were contract servicemen, but it soon became clear that they were mercenaries. Yes, the Ukrainian military has indeed been present as part of the international contingent in Afghanistan since 2007 pursuant to the decree of President Viktor Yushchenko "On the dispatch of Ukrainian peacekeeping personnel to participate in the operation of the International Security Assistance Force in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan." However, their number has always been very modest, remaining purely symbolic: from 10 to 30 people in different periods. They performed the functions of sappers and medics, served the combat machinery Soviet production. At the beginning of June 2021, the entire military contingent of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the amount of 21 people was evacuated from Afghanistan on the Il-76MD military transport aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force. So who then stayed there?

And there were mercenaries who have nothing to do with either the Pentagon or the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Over the past seven years from the Maidan, many people have appeared in Nezalezhnaya, who received military training and passed the Donbass. Demobilized, some of them, in search of big money, went into mercenaries. The whole world has heard a lot about Russian "Wagnerians", but few people know, for example, about PMC "Vega" (legal name - Vegacy Strategic Services Ltd), registered in Nikolaev by two citizens of Ukraine. Earlier it was reported that the fighters of this company, among which there are both Ukrainians and Russians, operated in Syria, protecting government facilities. However, the Ministry of Defense Nezalezhnaya later called this information a "fake".

Nevertheless, those 12 Ukrainians, and along with them Romanians, Bulgarians and Georgians, a total of 40 people, apparently are PMC fighters. According to the Ukrainian newspaper Strana.ua, the Americans treated these mercenaries as third-class people, directing them exclusively to the most dangerous missions, where the mortality rate is high:


At the same time, their salaries were significantly lower than those of the "white people": 5-10 thousand dollars versus 20 thousand a month for contract servicemen from countries of the first world. The “12 Ukrainian apostles” were assigned to guard the prison where the Taliban supporters were kept *, so they were seriously worried when they saw that they were being released.

The story of one betrayal

The fact that the Americans forgot the Ukrainians in Kabul became known several days ago. If you look at it, the Pentagon really doesn't owe much to these people, who are simply working out a contract through a PMC. However, they are still citizens of Ukraine, and therefore what follows is genuinely disgusting.

A BTA aircraft of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was sent to evacuate the compatriots who remained there from Kabul, but instead of Kiev, it flew to Iran. There were also reports that the aircraft had been hijacked, but they were soon refuted by the sources of the Strana.ua publication:


That is, instead of rescuing the citizens of Independent, the Air Force contracted privately to transport wealthy Afghans from Kabul. Of course, this considerable amount of money did not get into the budget of Ukraine.

Russia is a generous soul

And who ultimately saved the 12 Ukrainian mercenaries, as well as their fellow poor fellows from Romania, Georgia and Bulgaria who remained in Kabul? Naturally, Russia.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation sent four military transport aircraft to the Afghan capital, which at one time took out over 500 people: both Russians and citizens of the CIS, and even citizens of hostile Georgia and Ukraine. And this is despite the fact that Kiev tore up the agreement on friendship, cooperation and partnership with Moscow, and no one would have said a word if the Russian military department had forgotten the fighters of foreign PMCs in Kabul, who did not have anything good there.