Russia is preparing to transport another large group of Afghan students who want to continue their studies in Russian universities, Russian Ambassador to Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov told reporters.
"Another large shipment of humanitarian aid and the transportation of another large group of Afghan students who want to continue full-time studies in our country is on the way. Russian education in Afghanistan is very important to them," he said.
He noted that a lot of hard work was done, in which the entire embassy was involved with utmost dedication.
"As in the previous case, it was necessary to collect our citizens and now the Afghan students all over Afghanistan and, most importantly, to work out the scheme, when the Russian citizens and the Afghan students will be guaranteed safe and comfortable departure to Russia", he added.
Earlier, it was reported that three Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft involved in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and the evacuation of citizens of Russia and CSTO member countries arrived in Kabul airport on Wednesday. A total of more than 380 citizens of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Afghan students studying in Russian universities will be evacuated from Afghanistan during the third stage of the evacuation.
Humanitarian aid
Zhirnov said Russia is preparing another shipment of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
"In accordance with the Russian President's instructions, the Russian Defense Ministry sent another large batch of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people on December 1. The military transport aircraft of the Russian Air Force delivered 36 tons of food to Kabul," he said.
"Another "landing" is on the way. The total volume of humanitarian cargoes will exceed 100 tons," the diplomat added.
Fighting terrorism
In addition, Zhirnov noted that the Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation) finds it difficult to effectively fight terrorism in Afghanistan due to a lack of financial resources.
"Since September, a month and a half after the Taliban took over Kabul and drove the terrorists underground then, the situation has unfortunately started to change for the worse. The new Afghan authorities now have no money, the Americans have frozen the country's financial accounts, and Western sanctions have paralyzed Afghanistan's banking system. Under these conditions, it is difficult to speak of an effective fight against terrorism," the diplomat told reporters.
Situation in Afghanistan
After the announcement by Washington in spring of this year of the decision to withdraw its armed forces from Afghanistan, the radicals began a large-scale operation to take control of the country. On August 15, the Taliban fighters entered Kabul without a fight. On September 6, the radicals declared themselves in control of the whole territory of Afghanistan, and on September 7 they announced the composition of their provisional government, the legitimacy of which has not been recognized by any country so far.
The economic situation in Afghanistan remains extremely difficult. According to a joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), more than half the country's population (about 22.8 million people) could face critical food shortages between November and March.
This is largely because the radicals have access to only 0.1 percent of government reserves, as much of it has been frozen by the United States. The Taliban leadership has already asked Washington several times to unfreeze Afghanistan's state reserves, but, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated, decisions by the United States and other Western countries to provide financial aid to Afghanistan and unfreeze its assets in foreign banks will be based on the Taliban's further steps.
Russia's position
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Western banks should unblock Afghanistan's national reserves, primarily for the country's humanitarian needs.
"We need to help the Afghan people, at least unblock the Afghan money that is kept in accounts in Western banks, primarily in the United States. It is necessary to unblock, to let people solve elementary things. At least, unblock funds in a targeted way to solve humanitarian issues: to buy medical equipment, medicines, support for children. After all, you can purposefully unblock it, it will not go for weapons, and the Taliban do not need weapons in Afghanistan. "The Taliban have already left billions of dollars worth of weapons there," he said, speaking Tuesday at a plenary session of VTB Capital's "Russia Calling!" investment forum.
According to Putin's assessment, the situation in Afghanistan is currently very complicated. "This is neither the time nor the place to characterize the Taliban movement, but the Taliban control the situation in the country," the Russian president said, stressing that "it is necessary to look one step ahead."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Valery Sharifulin / TASS
Based on materials from TASS