Ukraine issues denial after saying evacuation plane hijacked in Kabul: report

Ukraine on Tuesday (24) issued a denial after earlier stating that a plane for evacuating Ukrainian citizens from Afghanistan was hijacked by unidentified people who flew it into Iran.

According to Kiev-based news agency Interfax-Ukraine, Ukraine's foreign ministry denied the reports saying: "There are no hijacked Ukrainian planes in Kabul or anywhere else. The information about the hijacked plane, which is being circulated by some media outlets, does not correspond to reality."

It further quoted Oleg Nikolenko, spokesperson of the foreign ministry, as saying that all planes that had left for evacuation from Afghanistan had returned safely, adding that 256 people had been evacuated so far in three flights.

Earlier, Russian News Agency TASS had quoted Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Yevgeny Yenin, as saying that a Ukrainian plane that reached Afghanistan on Tuesday to evacuate Ukrainian citizens had been hijacked by unidentified people who flew it into Iran.