Ukrainian plane in Afghanistan 'hijacked', flown to Iran: Report

According to Russia's TASS news agency, a Ukrainian plane that arrived in Afghanistan to evacuate its citizens washijacked even as the country's foreign ministry denied the incident.

The plane reportedly flew into Iran, TASS quoted Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Minister Yevgeny Yenin as saying.

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A Ukrainian military plane had evacuated 83 people from Kabul on Sundayincluding journalists, activists, Afghan women and children. However, conflicting reports emerged as Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko on Tuesday denied that the aircraft had been hijacked in Kabul.

Nikolenko reportedly told Interfax news agency that Yenin “was explaining in general the unprecedented level of difficulties that diplomats have had to face in order to evacuate Ukrainians.”

The country had informed earlier that over 100 Ukrainians remained in Afghanistan amid the evacuation operations.

"Last Sunday, our plane was hijacked by other people. On Tuesday, the plane was practically stolen from us, it flew into Iran with an unidentified group of passengers onboard instead of airlifting Ukrainians," TASS quoted Yenin as saying.

"Our next three evacuation attempts were also not successful because our people could not get into the airport," Yenin told the Russian news agency.

The deputy foreign minister claimed that the hijackers were armed.

(With inputs from Agencies)