Kuleba: Kyiv has no info about evacuation of Ukrainians from Afghanistan on Russian planes

KYIV. Aug 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian side has no information that Ukrainian citizens were onboard four flights operated by the Russian Federation from Afghanistan.

"As of now, we have no information that Ukrainian citizens were aboard these aircraft," Kuleba said at an online briefing on Thursday.

At the same time, the Foreign Minister pointed out that the fact that the planes from the Russian Federation flew not to the Kabul airport, but to the Bagram airport, testifies to the close connection between the Russian Federation and the Taliban movement.

"The fact that these planes flew not to the Kabul airport, which is controlled by the coalition forces, but to the Bagram airport, which is controlled by the Taliban, testifies to two things: first, the close connection between the Russian Federation and the Taliban movement, which, by the way, officially banned in Russia, and secondly, that the possibility of Ukrainian citizens on these evacuation planes is very low, because there were no Ukrainian citizens on the Bagram base and in its vicinity, at least those citizens of Ukraine, about which we knew," he stressed.

Kuleba urged to be careful with any information from the Russian Federation.

"I want us to be very careful about any Russian information – the Russians have already thrown a fake into the Ukrainian media space about how Ukraine abandoned 12 citizens at a military base near Kabul, then a new fake about two more Ukrainian seemingly military sitting somewhere near a rock and telling how they were all abandoned. Now they threw in a story about how they heroically saved the citizens of Ukraine. Any information that comes from the Russian Federation requires careful verification," he said.

"It’s a pity for me to see that after seven years of Russian disinformation campaign, many Ukrainian citizens, including those who should, to be honest, understand these things, are led into these things and immediately begin to write angry messages on Facebook about the next happening betrayal," added the head of the foreign ministry.

At the same time, the minister noted that he does not see anything reprehensible in the fact that one of the Ukrainians came from Afghanistan on a Russian plane. "You must understand the situation there on the spot. Even if, in theory – I have no information about this yet – a citizen of Ukraine jumped on a Russian board and flew out of the territory of Afghanistan, there is no betrayal as such, because if a person was in a situation that posed a risk to his life, he didn’t care which plane to jump on," said Kuleba.