Moscow. August 31. INTERFAX-AVN-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that a critical situation is developing in Afghanistan.
"The situation in this country is critical. People are trying to escape from there even at the cost of their own lives," Shoigu said on a conference call on Tuesday.
The Minister recalled that on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, from August 24 to 26, military transport aircraft evacuated citizens of the Russian Federation, the CSTO countries - Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus, as well as Uzbekistan from Afghanistan in difficult conditions.
"Three Il-76MD aircraft and one Il-62 aircraft were involved in the event," the Defense Minister said.
He expressed gratitude to the Russian pilots and medical personnel for their prompt and precise work.
On August 25, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that four Russian military transport planes evacuated more than 500 citizens of the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine from Afghanistan.
The Taliban ("Taliban" is a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) entered Kabul on August 15 and declared that they had liberated Afghanistan and considered the war over. Before that, against the background of the withdrawal of US troops and their allies from Afghanistan, the Taliban conducted a large-scale offensive against the Afghan government forces.
On the night of August 31, the last group of US military personnel left the Kabul airport, ending 20 years of American military presence in Afghanistan.
