Russian embassy in cooperation with the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs solves the whole range of diplomatic mission's problems, and the Russian side fully considers the UN sanctions against the Taliban movement (banned in Russia), Russian Ambassador to Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov told reporters on Thursday.
"With the Afghan Foreign Ministry, we are solving the whole range of tasks facing the embassy, including those related to the protection of the interests of Russian citizens in Afghanistan. Of course, we fully take into account the UN sanctions against the Taliban," he said, adding that political cooperation with the new Afghan authorities is out of the question.
It has become more difficult for Afghanistan's new authorities to fight the IS because of Washington's blocking of the country's foreign assets.
"When the US blocked Afghanistan's financial assets, the country's banking system stopped working because of Western sanctions. This hurt the counterterrorism capabilities of the new Afghan authorities. It became more difficult for them to fight the IS, and terrorist attacks began again in Afghanistan, which had been absent for a month and a half since the Taliban took power in August," the diplomat said.
Humanitarian situation
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is bad, with starvation coming to the country, Zhirnov said. "Unfortunately, the situation is bad. Famine is coming on Afghanistan. Socio-economic difficulties are intensifying," the diplomat said in response to a related question. - The Taliban should thank the US for that by freezing the money that belongs to Afghanistan".
Zhirnov noted that in accordance with the Russian president's order, the Defense Ministry has begun delivering humanitarian aid, which the Russian Emergencies Ministry is forming for the people of Afghanistan. "Its total volume is over 100 tons. On November 18, military transport aircraft delivered 36 tons of food and basic necessities to Kabul. Two more batches of special Defense Ministry flights are planned in the near future to deliver humanitarian cargoes, including medicines," the Russian ambassador said.
The diplomat also said that several hundreds of Russians are in Afghanistan. "Those of them who wanted to go to Russia will be flown back today by special Defense Ministry flights carrying humanitarian aid," he added.
International support
Solving Afghanistan's problems without the support of the international community is impossible, Zhirnov said. "The Taliban have said they want to cooperate with the international community: Russia, China and Pakistan are their priority. Now we are focusing on the need to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan," he said. - The next step is to mobilize international donors to rebuild the country economically. Without this, it's impossible to deal with Afghan problems such as refugees, terrorism and drugs.
On November 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu to organize the evacuation of more than 380 citizens of the Russian Federation, CSTO member states (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia), Ukraine and Afghanistan by military transport aircraft from the territory of Afghanistan. On instructions from the Russian Defense Minister, a military transport aviation group of three planes was formed for the evacuation, which took off from the Chkalovsky airfield in the shortest possible time. Each Russian aircraft carries medical and nursing teams of military medics with the necessary medical equipment and medicines to provide necessary medical care and support to the evacuees.
On August 25, about 400 citizens of Russia, CSTO member states (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) and Uzbekistan were evacuated from Afghanistan by military transport aircraft.
Earlier on Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that three military transport aircraft of the Russian Air Force flew from the Chkalovsky airfield to evacuate more than 380 people from Afghanistan on instructions from the Russian president.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Valery Sharifulin / TASS
Based on materials from TASS