August 30, 2021
About 360 evacuees from Kabul, including 80 Ukrainian citizens, arrive in Kiev on August 28.
Agence Anadolu/Getty Images
A plane carrying Afghan translators, including one who worked for The Globe and Mail and another who served the Canadian military and their families, arrived in Kiev following a daring operation by stationed Ukrainian soldiers at Kabul airport.
The rescue, which was coordinated by the Ukrainian military, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office and The Globe, could pave the way for more Afghans fleeing the Taliban to reach Canada. Ottawa has promised to resettle vulnerable Afghans on condition that they can travel to third countries, and The Globe has learned that the Canadian government has asked the Ukrainian government if it would be ready to transport more refugees to Canada. in Kiev, where they would be processed before resettlement.
The translators’ rescue was carried out early Friday morning in Kabul, a day after the last Canadian evacuation plane left Afghanistan, and hours after the deadly suicide bombing at one of the airport gates international Hamid Karzai, which resulted in the deaths of at least 170 Afghans trying to flee the country, as well as 13 American soldiers. Following the attack, claimed by the local affiliate of the so-called Islamic State, the United States said only foreign nationals – and no longer Afghans applying for visas – would be allowed into the airport.
Despite this restriction, as well as the growing risks to coalition forces ahead of the planned withdrawal of the last US forces on August 31, Ukrainian troops marched into the city of Kabul to escort two minibuses – carrying the translators to their destinations. from Canada. and their families, 19 people in all – on the airfield.
The soldiers had photographs of the license plates of the minibuses, and they surrounded and escorted the vehicles the last 600 meters to the airport.
“The convoy entered [the airport] because the Ukrainians came out. We just sent them the license plates of our vehicles… and they came to the local bazaar to find us. They said “Ukraine? We said ‘Yes!’ and they took us inside, ”said Mohammed Sharif Sharaf, a 49-year-old father of five who spent 10 years as a fixer and translator helping The Globe cover Canada’s role in the war in Afghanistan. .
After reaching the airport, the 19 Afghans were boarded a military cargo plane – which was stationed in Kabul as part of Ukraine’s little-known contribution to the NATO-led effort in the country – and flew to Islamabad with a group of other Afghans the Ukrainians had previously rescued. In the Pakistani capital, they were transferred on a chartered commercial plane that transported the group to Ukraine, with a brief stopover in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
In a tweet, Zelensky said “360 more Ukrainians and citizens of other countries” arrived in Kiev on Saturday. “Our military, our intelligence services and our diplomats did a brilliant job. Ukraine does not leave its struggling citizens in difficult times and helps others!
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Two previous attempts, planned by the Canadian military before it left Kabul airport, failed to get Mr. Sharaf’s group into the airport, as did another attempt organized by the Department of US state. These operations relied on the ability of Afghans and their families to reach designated meeting points near the airport gates, which proved impossible in the chaos outside the facility, where thousands of ‘Afghans gathered in hopes of being airlifted out of Kabul, which fell to extremist Taliban on August 15.
The Ukrainian operation succeeded where others had collapsed because the Ukrainian army deployed special forces troops to the city on foot to carry out the rescue.
Evacuees said they were stunned that Ukrainian troops took risks to save them, unlike Canadian and US forces.
“Everyone was surprised. I tried last month to get someone to get us. We asked Americans, Canadians, Qataris, everyone – and no solution. They were afraid to go out, ”said Jawed Haqmal, a 33-year-old father of four who worked for two years with the Canadian Special Forces in Kandahar. “Ukrainian soldiers were angels to us. They did an exceptional job. They have a big heart.
Retired captain Jérémie Verville of the Royal 22e Régiment said his former translator’s escape was “a stor an who went out of his way to ask for help.”
Mr. Sharaf, Mr. Haqmal and their families arrived in Kiev with passes issued to them a day before the Ukrainian operation by the office of Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino. The documents indicate that porters should be treated as Canadian citizens and that they had visas to travel to Canada.
The documents were enough to get them out of Kabul, but created hours of bureaucracy at Kiev’s Boryspil Airport on Saturday, where border guards had no idea how to deal with evacuees, many of whom had passports. expired or only identity cards issued by the former Afghan government. government. The Sharaf and Haqmal families, along with others on the plane, were finally granted 15-day humanitarian visas to enter Ukraine, in part because of promises from the Canadian Embassy that they would be quickly resettled. .
“What this extraordinary effort demonstrates is that we can and will continue to be very nimble in providing Afghan refugees with all the visas or documents they need to make it clear that they are bound for Canada and should be authorized. to get here, ”Mendicino said in a telephone interview.
While the dramatic Kabul operation is unlikely to be repeated due to the deteriorating security situation in the country, the Islamabad-Kiev trail that has been mapped could be used to help move other Afghans to Canada. who have reached Pakistan, then they can travel to Ukraine where they can be screened and processed for resettlement in Canada.
“Canada has further requested our further support and we will be happy to assist you,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in response to questions e-mailed by The Globe. He said the rescue of Kabul demonstrated the capabilities of his country’s military and why it should finally be accepted into the NATO alliance, a long-standing goal of the Ukrainian government. “In these horrific circumstances, our military officers displayed bravery, high class and exemplary professionalism. “
Roman Waschuk, a former Canadian ambassador to Kiev who aided the operation by putting the Globe in touch with a senior official in Mr Zelensky’s office, said the Ukrainians accepted the rescue mission largely thanks to the support that their country had received from Canada during its own seven-year war with Russian-backed forces in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine. Canada has provided some $ 700 million in financial assistance to Ukraine since the start of the conflict and has deployed 200 troops on a rotational basis since 2015 on a mission to train Ukrainian troops for combat.
“This is, in part, a return on the investment of successive Canadian governments in the training of the Ukrainian army. There is a lot of respect and appreciation for what Canada has done over the past seven years, ”said Mr. Waschuk.
Rachel Pulfer, executive director of the Toronto-based Journalists for Human Rights, said the Ukrainian rescue was one of many since Canada ended its evacuation on Thursday. She said her organization – working with other groups, as well as individual Canadian journalists – had compiled a list of 275 Afghan media and human rights workers and their families who wanted to leave, but who had been left behind by the Western Airlift. Twenty-nine of them have since left the country, including Mr. Sharaf and his family, who account for seven of that figure.
“Each of these 29 people represents a miracle of human ingenuity and resilience in the face of the longest possible odds imaginable,” Ms. Pulfer said. “The sad reality is that we have hundreds more left – the numbers are growing every day – and much, much more to be done to keep those most at risk safe.
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