Ukrainian plane was hijacked by armed people in Kabul

Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin informed that the Ukrainian plane which had reached Kabul to evacuate Ukrainian citizens was hijacked by armed people.

Yevhen Yenin said that in his comment to Hromadske Radio and Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko clarified this information later.

“Our plane was hijacked on Sunday by some unknown armed people. On Tuesday, our plane was actually stolen – it flew to Iran with an unknown group of passengers on board instead of taking the Ukrainians. Our next three attempts to evacuate the citizens were also unsuccessful because our people could not reach the airport.” – Yenin said.

Yenin also noted that last week the entire diplomatic service, headed by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, worked in a “crash test” mode.

At the same time, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko explained that there was no “hijacking” as such, and Yenin just used this word to explain that the plane, which was supposed to evacuate Ukrainian citizens, had taken other people as a result.

According to him, in the end, all the planes that our state used to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan returned safely to Ukraine. There were three evacuation flights that took out 256 people.

The clarification was made at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It concerns the fact that there was no hijacking as such.

Background: 

• A plane carrying 98 evacuees from Afghanistan, including 27 Ukrainians, landed at Boryspil airport.
• On August 22, the second evacuation plane carrying people from Kabul to Kyiv landed at Boryspil Airport.
• A military transport aircraft of the Air Force evacuated 83 people from Afghanistan, including 31 Ukrainians, as well as citizens of other countries. Among the Ukrainian citizens are 12 people who were at a military base near Kabul. Among the evacuees are also representatives of international media and NGOs. 
• On the night of August 16, a Ukrainian plane evacuated 79 people from Kabul – 8 Ukrainians and citizens of other countries, including Afghanistan.

Ukraine Front Lines

Source: pravda