Kiev denies reports of Ukrainian plane hijacked in Kabul-UPDATED

Kiev denies reports of Ukrainian plane hijacked in Kabul-UPDATED
# 24 August 2021 13:50 (UTC +04:00)

Media reports of a Ukrainian plane hijacked in the Afghan capital are untrue, Spokesman for the country’s Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko said the RBC Ukraine news agency, APA reports.

"No Ukrainian planes have been hijacked in Kabul or in any other place. Reports of a hijacked aircraft that some media outlets are spreading are untrue," he insisted.

According to him, all planes that Kiev used to evacuate Ukrainian citizens from Afghanistan have safely returned to Ukraine. As of now, 256 people were evacuated on three flights.

*** 11:41

A Ukrainian plane that arrived in Afghanistan to evacuate Ukrainians has been hijacked by unidentified people who flew it into Iran, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said on Tuesday, APA reports citing TASS.

"Last Sunday, our plane was hijacked by other people. On Tuesday, the plane was practically stolen from us, it flew into Iran with an unidentified group of passengers onboard instead of airlifting Ukrainians. Our next three evacuation attempts were also not successful because our people could not get into the airport," he said.

According to him, the hijackers were armed. However, the deputy minister did not report anything about what happened to the plane or whether Kiev would seek to get it back or how the Ukrainian citizens got back from Kabul, onboard of this "practically stolen" plane or another one sent by Kiev. Yenin only underlined that the whole diplomatic service headed by Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba "had been working in the crash test mode" the whole week.

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