MOSCOW — Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has refuted an earlier statement that a Ukrainian aircraft was hijacked at Kabul airport during an evacuation of Afghans and other nationals seeking to flee the Taliban militant group.

Earlier Tuesday, Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin spoke of two incidents involving its evacuation aircraft over the past week in comments to Hromadske Radio.

But, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko later denied the reports, saying Yenin "was explaining in general the unprecedented level of difficulties that diplomats have had to face in order to evacuate Ukrainians."

Nikolenko said Ukraine has carried out three evacuation flights that have transported a total of 256 people from Kabul to Ukraine.

"There are no hijacked Ukrainian planes in Kabul or elsewhere. The information about the 'hijacked plane' that is being circulated by some media outlets is not true," Nikolenko stressed

Earlier, it was reported that unidentified armed hijackers took control of a Ukrainian plane and redirected its route to Iran, according to a Ukrainian senior diplomat said Tuesday.

The plane arrived in Afghanistan last week to evacuate Ukrainians, reports quoting Russian News Agency TASS noted.

"Last Sunday, our plane was hijacked by other people. On Tuesday, the plane was practically stolen from us, with an unidentified group of passengers onboard instead of airlifting Ukrainians," Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Yenin said. — KUNA