A Nervy Journey to Kabul: How Ukraine Negotiated With the Taliban and Rescued 96 Afghans

KYIV, Ukraine — Earlier than departing for Afghanistan, an elite staff of Ukrainian troops gathered in a circle exterior the airport and handed round a bottle of whiskey, a ritual meant to calm the nerves.

It was early within the morning of Sept. 16, and the troops, members of Ukraine’s army intelligence service, often known as the G.U.R., have been about to embark on a daring plunge into the unknown: fly to Kabul and evacuate practically 100 folks, a mixture of Ukrainian residents and Afghans believed to be at excessive danger. That they had flown comparable rescue missions because the fall of Kabul in mid-August, however this may be the primary since American troops had departed, leaving the Taliban in full management.

Earlier than boarding the airplane, a senior officer knowledgeable the commander, Gen. Kyrylo O. Budanov, that the Taliban had assured that the airplane may land at Kabul’s worldwide airport, stay there unmolested whereas the evacuees boarded, after which safely depart. The entire course of, they have been assured, would take just a few hours.

“Do you imagine them?” Common Budanov requested.

In the end, it could take seven days, two journeys to Kabul and a nerve rattling marathon of negotiations with novice and jumpy Taliban functionaries earlier than the staff returned dwelling to Kyiv. They took with them 96 exhausted Afghans, together with a gaggle of scholars from a Vatican-sponsored college and a 3-year-old boy who was wounded within the terrorist assault final month on the Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate.

For the Ukrainians, it was a crash course in coping with a Taliban authorities fighting inside division, bureaucratic chaos and a barely managed inclination for violence. For days, the Taliban refused to launch the folks the Ukrainians hoped to rescue, repeatedly altering the phrases of the evacuation deal, demanding official recognition from the Ukrainian authorities, and at one level threatening to commandeer the airplane.

However on Thursday, lastly, the Afghans stepped out right into a blustery autumn night time in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, following a flight that grew to become an sudden lifeline after many had given up hope of escape.

“I’ve been ready for evacuation for a month and a half, however my household and I may by no means make it by,” mentioned Kharimi, 38, who had arrived in Kyiv with six relations, together with a small daughter he hopes will now have an opportunity at a future. “First Ukraine, then God listened to our prayers.” The New York Instances is referring to the Afghan evacuees by solely their first names to guard their identities.

Within the first weeks after Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, a coalition of countries carried out a colossal, if usually haphazard, airlift to extract tens of 1000’s Afghans immediately in grave hazard due to their work for overseas governments or Afghan safety providers. However with out the U.S. safety blanket — the final American C-17 cargo planes left on the finish of August — few nations have been keen to hazard their planes and their folks to proceed evacuations, leaving 1000’s of at-risk Afghans with few choices for escape.

Enter Ukraine, a small however battle-hardened nation after years of conflict with Russian-backed separatists. After Kabul fell, Ukraine’s large Ilyushin army planes have been among the many first to reach to assist with the evacuation. At one level, a gaggle of Ukrainian G.U.R. officers left the safety of the airport and, firing their rifles into the air, cleared a path for a pair of buses transporting journalists to security.

Regardless that the Individuals have departed, the Ukrainian mission is continuous, mentioned Common Budanov, who at 35 has spent a fifth of his life at conflict, a lot of that behind enemy traces as a army intelligence officer.

“Most nations within the West, in my view, received’t do one thing if it’s harmful,” he mentioned. “We’ve been dwelling with a conflict for seven years, so our understanding of what’s harmful is somewhat bit totally different.”

The Sept. 16 operation bumped into hassle from the beginning. As quickly because the airplane touched down in Kabul, Taliban officers introduced that they might not enable evacuees to board with out a written enchantment from the Ukrainian authorities addressed to the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

“This might be interpreted and can be interpreted as an act of recognition of their authorities, which we categorically refuse to do,” Common Budanov mentioned.

The airplane returned to Kyiv earlier than heading again to Kabul on Sept. 19. There it sat whereas the staff on the bottom and officers in Ukraine carried out tense negotiations with an ever-changing forged of Taliban officers every claiming to be the individual in cost.

“The largest issue was that there was no hierarchical authority,” mentioned one of many Ukrainian officers concerned within the operation, who like others spoke solely on the situation that his title not be used. “Each individual with some type of a badge is for certain that he is aware of what’s greatest. It took so lengthy to resolve each subject.”

Even seemingly minor disagreements threatened to scuttle the complete mission. The Ukrainians had created a printed listing of evacuees’ names with every household highlighted in a distinct coloration. The Taliban refused to just accept it, unexpectedly demanding that the printout be in black and white.

“After which it got here to me,” mentioned a senior G.U.R. officer. “They ban music; they ban artwork. And we ship them a doc printed in coloration, and so they’re like, what’s with this pornography.” The printout was despatched again in black and white.

For the Ukrainian staff, the 4 days and nights they spent camped out on a chartered industrial airliner have been barely extra comfy than life on the entrance again dwelling, although occasional and inexplicable bursts of gunfire within the neighborhood of the airplane rattled nerves.

For the evacuees, although, it was agony. For practically every week, they arrived day by day at 6 a.m., hoping to board the flight and ready on the airport for as much as 12 hours earlier than leaving disillusioned. As soon as they made all of it the way in which to the gate, boarding passes in hand, earlier than being informed no flight can be leaving.

One of many evacuees, a 36-year-old who refused to provide his title as a result of he had labored for the Afghan safety providers and studied in the US, mentioned Taliban officers had twice known as to threaten him. He mentioned he modified his location each 24 hours as a safety precaution and was terrified he can be acknowledged every time he went to the airport hoping to board the Ukrainian flight.

“I put my life at risk and my family members at risk,” he mentioned.

Ukrainian officers mentioned the rescue mission practically collapsed on Wednesday night, when safety officers on the airport mentioned the airplane needed to depart in half-hour, with out the evacuees, or the plane can be commandeered.

Ukrainian officers wouldn’t present particulars about precisely how they overcame the deadlock, however they cited help from Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar, in addition to Wali Monawar, the ambassador to Ukraine from the earlier Afghan authorities, who stays at his put up in Kyiv.

The all-white jet carrying the Afghan evacuees touched down below a darkening sky in Kyiv on Thursday night. The primary to disembark have been three younger siblings, two ladies and a boy, wearing similar Disney hoodies. Crimson Cross staff have been ready at a closed terminal at Boryspil Worldwide Airport with tea and gold foil blankets to guard in opposition to the unseasonable chilly. Whereas among the evacuees have been Ukrainian residents, primarily Afghans who had studied or labored within the nation, many had by no means imagined ending up in such a spot.

Nazir, 39, was a high quality arts professor at Herat College who destroyed his gallery fairly than letting it fall into the fingers of the Taliban earlier than fleeing together with his spouse and three kids. He wore a big silver ring inlaid with black, inexperienced and crimson stones, Afghanistan’s nationwide colours.

“I left the whole lot behind,” he mentioned. “My nation, my land, my college students, my household, my coronary heart.”

Almost two dozen folks on the Ukrainians’ authentic listing of evacuees remained in Afghanistan, largely as a result of they lacked legitimate journey paperwork once they confirmed up on the airport. In all, Ukraine has now evacuated greater than 700 folks, together with journalists from The Wall Avenue Journal, Stars and Stripes and USA As we speak, mentioned Andrii B. Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of workers.

“Ukraine is not going to depart its residents or the residents of different nations at risk,” Mr. Yermak mentioned.

The G.U.R. management and different high Ukrainian officers plan to review the mission and decide tips on how to make future runs to Kabul function extra easily. For now, Common Budanov mentioned he was comfortable to have his folks dwelling protected.

On the airport on Thursday night time, after the Afghan refugees had been handed over to immigration officers, the final once more gathered his staff in a circle, pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and handed it round.