Ukrainian evacuation plane hijacked by armed men in Kabul: reports

A Ukrainian aircraft in Afghanistan was hijacked and diverted to Iran, media reports confirmed quoting a Ukraine Minister.

The plane had reportedly arrived in Afghanistan last week to evacuate Ukrainians.

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied media reports, saying “There are no captured Ukrainian planes in Kabul or elsewhere. The information about the ‘captured plane’ that is being circulated by some media outlets is not true.”

Earlier, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin had said that a Ukrainian plane that arrived in Afghanistan for the evacuation of stranded Ukrainians has been hijacked.

The foreign ministry spokesperson explained that Yenin was speaking about an unprecedented level of difficulties being faced by diplomats to evacuate Ukrainians in Afghanistan.

“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,” Yenin said.

Yevgeny Yenin had said that the hijackers were armed.

However, there has been no confirmation of the incident from the US or NATO officials who are controlling the Hamid Karzai International Airport since the Taliban took control of Kabul last week.