New Delhi: While evacuation missions of many countries from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are in full force, a Ukrainian plane that arrived in the country to evacuate Ukrainians has been hijacked.
Russian news agency TASS reported that the Ukrainian aircraft has been hijacked by unidentified people who flew it into Iran, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said on Tuesday.
"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, as quoted by TASS.
According to the Deputy Foreign Minister, the hijackers were armed.
News agency TASS reported that the plane flew into Iran with an unidentified group of passengers, instead of lifting Ukrainian passengers.
The report said that 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.
Meanwhile, another Russian media outlet ‘Interfax' has said that Keiv has denied reports of hijacking any Ukrainian evacuation plane in Afghanistan.
Around 100 Ukrainians are still stranded in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated. On Sunday, a military transport plane with 83 people on board, including 31 Ukrainians, arrived from Afghanistan to Kiev. According to the presidential office of Ukraine, a total of 12 military personnel returned home and many reporters and public figures who had requested safe evacuation were brought back to their country.