KYIV -- A Ukrainian military plane carrying 83 people, including journalists, activists, and Afghan women and children, arrived in Kyiv, as part of the massive evacuation of foreigners and endangered Afghans from Kabul.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post to Twitter on August 22 that the group included journalists from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
"They're safe in Kyiv. We don't abandon our people and help others. Working on further evacuations," Kuleba wrote.
Kyiv is unlikely to be the final destination for many of those arriving.
Fatima Hossein, an English-language reporter for the news site KabulNow who was evacuated to Kyiv, said in an interview with RFE/RL that she was happy to have left, but she feared for her parents, including her father, who served in the Afghan Army.
"My parents tried to help me evacuate.... I received a call from the Ukrainian government that the Ukrainian plane would land in Kabul and that I should get there as soon as possible," she said. "But it was not easy, because if the Ukrainian military was not there with me, I do not know how I could get to the plane."
"I don't know about my parents, whether they are safe or not. But I tried to help them get a Pakistani visa. They have to get out of there as soon as possible, because my father's life is in danger," she said.
In a separate statement, the president's office said more than 100 Ukrainians remained in Afghanistan.
Ukraine last week helped evacuate Sahraa Karimi, an Afghan filmmaker and the first woman to head the state-run Afghan Film Organization.
