KIEV – Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Yevgeny Yenin, announced on Tuesday that a Ukrainian jet that had landed in Afghanistan to evacuate stranded Ukrainians had been seized.
“Other individuals hijacked our plane last Sunday. The jet was essentially stolen from us on Tuesday when it went into Iran with an unnamed group of passengers instead of airlifting Ukrainians. Our subsequent three evacuation attempts were similarly unsuccessful since our people were unable to enter the airport “The Russian Tass news agency reported the minister as saying.
According to Yevgeny Yenin, the hijackers were armed.
The deputy minister said nothing about what happened to the jet, if Kiev will try to recover it, or how Ukrainian citizens returned from Kabul, whether on this “practically stolen” plane or another despatched by Kiev.
“The whole diplomatic service, led by Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, has been operating in crash mode for the entire week,” the minister continued.
The Iranian aviation authorities, on the other hand, denied media reports regarding the jet hijacking.
