Ukraine's U-turn on Kabul plane hijack

Hours after Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin was quoted as claiming that one of the country's aircraft had been hijacked and taken to Iran, the Ukrainian foreign ministry has now come out with a denial.

Ukraine Foreign Ministry official Oleg Nikolenko clarified that news reports about the hijacked aircraft did not correspond to reality.

He also said that all aircraft despatched from Ukraine to evacuate citizens from Afghanistan have returned safely. 

So far, 256 people have been evacuated in three evacuation flights.

To recall, Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin was quoted by Russian media outlets as saying that one of their passenger aircraft had been hijacked and flown to Iran with an unidentified group of passengers onboard. 

Yevgeny claimed that armed hijackers took control of the aircraft, which had arrived in Afghanistan's capital Kabul to evacuate Ukrainians, and then flew it to Iran.

Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation quickly denied the hijacking but admitted that the aircraft landed at Mashhad.

The civil aviation organisation said that the said plane had arrived in Mashhad for refuelling after which it took off for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, according to reports, all flights from the Hamid Karzai International Airport have been suspended for the time being.