Ukrainian plane sent to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan following Taliban offensive HIJACKED in Kabul, deputy minister claims
byAdam Noh•
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Ukrainian plane sent to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan following Taliban offensive HIJACKED in Kabul, deputy minister claims
A Ukrainian plane that was supposed to evacuate the country's citizens from Afghanistan following the Taliban's takeover of Kabul was hijacked by unknown assailants and, instead, took a different load of passengers to Iran.
The incident, which happened last week, was revealed by Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin, speaking to the Western-funded Hromadske TV on Tuesday.
"Our plane was hijacked," Yenin explained. "Last Tuesday, we actually had our plane stolen – it flew to Iran with an unknown group of passengers on board, instead of taking Ukrainians out."
He didn't elaborate any further on how the situation with the stolen plane ended, or who orchestrated the maneuver.
Following the hijacking, Kiev failed three more times to evacuate Ukrainian citizens, Yenin explained, noting that passengers were not allowed to enter the airport in Kabul.
However, on Sunday Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba revealed on Twitter that a new attempt had been successful, evacuating 83 people, including 31 Ukrainians and foreigners, overcoming what he called "a million problems." His feel-good tweets failed to include any mention of the hijacking, however.
In the last few weeks, many foreign countries have been trying to get their citizens out of Kabul, following the beginning of the Taliban offensive. The airlifts picked up pace on August 15, when militants from the Taliban entered the capital and declared that they had taken control of the entire nation, including all its major cities and border checkpoints.
Following Yenin's statement, Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko caused confusion by directly contradicting him, denying that any plane had been hijacked.
The Taliban is designated as a terrorist organization by Russia's Ministry of Justice.
