A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson has denied earlier reports from the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister that a Ukrainian evacuation plane in Kabul was hijacked by armed assailants and flown from Afghanistan to Iran last week.  

"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 on board instead of airlifting Ukrainians," Russian news agency Tass quoted Yevhenii Yenin, Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, as saying on August 23.

"We made the first evacuation flight from Sunday to Monday. When our passengers came on the flight, other people were sitting in their seats. The plane was actually hijacked, in particular by people with weapons, who, simply hiding from the horrors of war, tried to leave the territory of Afghanistan in any way," Tass quoted Yenin as saying.

The second plane, according to Yenin, "actually escaped "as it was planned to be filled with Ukrainian citizens, but for unknown reasons, it flew to a neighbouring country for refuelling.

However, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko has called the reports of the hijacked plane untrue. He told RBC that Yenin was referring generally to the difficulties in evacuating people from the airport in Kabul.  

A total of 83 people, including 31 Ukrainians, arrived in Kyiv from Afghanistan via military transport plane on August 21. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported that 12 Ukrainian military personnel had returned home, while reporters and others who had requested evacuation were returned. All the planes used by Ukrainian authorities to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan returned safely to Ukraine, according to Zelenskiy. There have already been three evacuation flights that took out a total of 256 people.  

There are still 100 Ukrainians in Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated. Nikolenko has confirmed that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is in contact with these people and actively working to extract them.  

Meanwhile, the United States has asked Ukrainian authorities for assistance in evacuating a number of people at risk from Afghanistan, the presidential press service has stated regarding the Foreign Ministry, the Kyiv Post reports. "Ukraine has agreed to provide logistical assistance in evacuating people from Kabul with their subsequent move to the United States and other countries. This operation does not provide for the provision of shelter to evacuees in Ukraine," the message says. It notes that Washington, in turn, is helping in operations to evacuate Ukrainian citizens from Afghanistan.