Ukraine withdraws hijacking allegation

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After claiming earlier that its evacuation plane was hijacked in Afghanistan and sent to Iran, Ukraine has now retracted its claim.

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied the media information, saying that “there are no captured Ukrainian planes in Kabul or elsewhere. The information on the” captured plane “which circulating by some media are not true, “according to the RBC Ukraine news agency.

Earlier, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said a Ukrainian plane that arrived in Afghanistan to evacuate stranded Ukrainians had been hijacked.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said Yenin spoke of an unprecedented level of difficulty for diplomats to evacuate Ukrainians to Afghanistan.

“Last Sunday our plane was hijacked by other people. On Tuesday the plane was practically stolen from us, it landed in Iran with an unidentified group of passengers on board instead of airlifting Ukrainians. three subsequent evacuation attempts also failed because our people could not enter the airport, “Yenin said, quoted by the Russian Tass news agency.

Yevgeny Yenin said the hijackers were armed.

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

Ukrainian deputy minister said nothing about what happened to the plane or whether Kiev would seek to retrieve it or how Ukrainian citizens returned from Kabul, aboard this “practically stolen” plane or another sent by Kiev.

“The entire diplomatic service headed by Foreign Minister Dmitri Kuleba had been working in crash test mode all week,” added the minister.

However, Iranian aviation authorities have dismissed media reports of the hijacking.

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