A Ukrainian plane on an evacuation mission to Afghanistan was hijacked by unidentified armed people and diverted to Iran, according to reports. Reportedly, the plane arrived in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to evacuate the Ukrainians, on Sunday.
"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," Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Yevhenii Yenin told the Ukrainian Hromadske Radio on Tuesday.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Iranian Civil Aviation Authority, while denying the claim, stated that the plane refueled in Mashhad and then flew to Kiev.
According to RBC Ukraine news agency the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has also denied the report of hijacking. "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," Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the ministry was quoted by the outlet.
