Nearly 200 Ukrainians have requested to be evacuated from Afghanistan as of Aug. 31, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told journalists during a working visit to the U.S.
The minister said that the status of Ukrainians who want to leave Afghanistan has been constantly changing over the past few weeks.
“For example, two weeks ago, some people didn’t come forward, but then did so later. Others filed a request right away but then left on a different plane, because an opportunity to do so came up. So, the number [of requests] fluctuates but no one will be left behind,” Kuleba said.
However, one Ukrainian citizen in Afghanistan said that not everyone has been able to get on the evacuation flights.
“Our names were added to the official evacuation list at the MFA. But then I see that people start leaving, even those who don’t have any identification. Meanwhile, no one is calling me,” Atif Raziki, a Ukrainian citizen who’s been trying to evacuate his family since Aug. 23, told the Kyiv Post.
“I reached out to the Ukrainian embassy in Tajikistan, but they told me to stop calling them and just wait for a call. Five days have gone by, everyone left, no one contacted us, and then I learnt that the last Ukrainian plane has left,” Raziki said.
Earlier on Aug. 27, the Ukrainian ambassador to Tajikistan and Afghanistan Vasyl Servatiuk said more than 230 Ukrainian citizens and their family members remained in Afghanistan and that they would be evacuated on a subsequent flight but declined to disclose any details.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko told the Kyiv Post that Ukraine will continue evacuating its citizens after Aug. 31.
“The evacuation routes might be altered based on the situation at the Kabul airport,” Nikolenko said.
The statement comes days after Ukrainian troops successfully evacuated 19 Afghan translators who had worked with the Canadian armed forces, as well as the translators’ families, mere hours after a bomb hit Kabul airport, killing 170 people on Aug. 26. The evacuees arrived in Ukraine on Aug. 30, where they were granted 15-day humanitarian visas as they wait to be resettled in Canada.
Kuleba said that four countries have requested Ukraine’s help in evacuating their citizens.
While many praised the Ukrainian troops for their courage, some critics have questioned why the Ukrainian government is aiding foreigners while Ukrainian citizens remain stuck in Afghanistan. On Aug. 31, independent media publication Zaborona published a video of Ukrainian nationals of Afghan descent appealing to President Volodymyr Zelensky to evacuate them and their families from the country.
When asked if helping other countries can give Ukraine a foreign relations boost, Kuleba said that “human grief” should not be “turned into marketing.”
“We’re not doing self-promotion, we’re just doing our duty,” he said. “Our partners appreciate it.”
So far, Ukraine has evacuated over 650 people on six flights.
Tens of thousands of people have been trying to flee Afghanistan after the radical Islamist movement Taliban completed its takeover of the country by marching into Kabul without a fight on Aug. 15.
The deadly Aug. 26 Islamic State attacks at Kabul airport interrupted most evacuation attempts.
