Ukraine retracts claims of plane hijack, says it's landed safely

KYIV: Ukrainian foreign ministry has withdrawn its claims that its evacuation plane in Afghanistan was hijacked by unidentified armed personnel and was rerouted to Iran, ARY News reported quoting international media outlets.

A Ukraine’s foreign ministry official has denied the earlier claim by the deputy foreign minister that alleged hijack of its evacuation plane, according to Ukrainian news agency RBC.

It has said the plane has landed in Kyiv safely.

Ahead of Ukraine’s retracting, Iran had already clarified the matter saying the plane made a stopover for refueling in Mashhad and now it’s on its way back to Kyiv already.

The Iranian civil aviation authority denied the claims by Ukraine’s top official and said plane was never hijacked.

Ukrainian plane carrying international evacuees ‘hijacked’ in Afghanistan

Earlier today, the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister said their evacuee plane carrying international passengers from Kabul had been hijacked after it took off earlier this and has allegedly been redirected towards Iran.

Yevhenii Yenin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, had claimed their plane has been hijacked by unidentified men as soon as it took off on Sunday from Kabul to evacuate people after the Taliban takeover.

The evacuee plane of Ukraine was carrying international passengers in an evacuation drive but it was hijacked halfway and rerouted towards Iran, Yevhenii Yenin said.