The Afghan authorities till the last did not believe in the withdrawal of the U.S. army from the country and considered all movements of American troops over the past six months to be military maneuvers, Mohammad Farajallah, an expert on the Near and Middle East, the editor-in-chief of the Ukraine in Arabic online portal, told the Experts Club YouTube channel.
“For some unknown reason, the Afghan leadership decided to reshuffle personnel in the army and appointed a person who had been undergoing long-term treatment in the UAE as the Minister of Defense,” the expert added.
Farajallah believes that due to these factors, the Afghan armed forces were in a deplorable state by the beginning of the large-scale offensive by the Taliban. In addition, according to the expert, the Afghan army is used to fighting according to the American model, and was not ready for the lack of massive air support and satellite intelligence.
“At the end of April, the U.S. military ceased serving Afghan aircraft and transmitting intelligence. They announced that they were beginning to withdraw their troops. The Afghan authorities, in turn, did not prepare (for the Taliban’s offensive) and did not understand the importance of the situation. Also, this situation damages the reputation of the CIA, which in its forecasts gave the Taliban at least six months to seize power,” the orientalist emphasized.
Another wrong decision of the Afghan authorities, according to the expert, was the concentration of military units in large cities. This led to the formation of a kind of besieged garrisons without supply lines, which rather quickly surrendered to the Taliban one after another.
The expert said the main factor behind the quick victory for the Taliban was the low morale of the Afghan army. The few pockets of resistance were brutally suppressed by the Taliban, but most of the army simply laid down their arms.
“The Taliban have worked with the heads of clans who have a huge impact on the local population, including soldiers of the Afghan army. When a tribal elder tells a local soldier to drop his weapon and go home, he has no choice but to obey, as tribal leaders have much more authority than inexperienced army commanders,” he noted.
Watch the first part of the program on the situation in Afghanistan here
You can subscribe to the Experts Club channel here.
The plane of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine with evacuees from Afghanistan landed at Boryspil airport.
The broadcast is hosted by the Ukraine24 television channel. It has not yet been reported how many people were evacuated.
According to the Foreign Ministry, about 90 Ukrainians were expected to be evacuated in Afghanistan. Ukraine has already exported more than 250 of its citizens, their family members and foreigners.
Ukraine is in the process of the next stage of evacuation from Afghanistan, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“The civilian sector of the Kabul airport has stopped working. The private plane, which Ukraine has agreed on, was the last civilian plane that took off from this airport before it closed a few days ago, just on August 23. But the military part of the airport is working, and we are now in stages of the next stage of evacuation, I cannot disclose the details yet, but there will be news soon,” Kuleba said on the air of the Ukraine 24 television channel on Friday.
The foreign minister said the Kabul military airport should also be closed by August 31. According to him, after August 31, the evacuation from Afghanistan will continue, “but it will no longer be necessary to negotiate with the Americans and the British, who currently control the military airport, but directly with the Taliban or those countries that the Taliban define as mediators for this process.”
Kuleba said that now Ukraine does not and cannot have relations with the Taliban, because in most countries of the world this organization is recognized as a terrorist one.
“We do not maintain diplomatic ties with them, but, surely, for the sake of the life and safety of citizens, for example, if there is a Taliban checkpoint in front of the airport, and we need to bring a car with Ukrainian citizens to the airport, then, of course, there are working channels, on which we are resolving these issues with the Taliban. But this in no way testifies to their international recognition,” he said.
Kuleba also recalled that about 90 Ukrainian citizens are awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan.
Another plane has departed from the airport of Kabul (Afghanistan) with more than 100 Ukrainian citizens on board.
The relevant statement was made by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba during the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform in Kyiv on Monday.
“Now, while we are discussing the issue of Crimea, another Ukrainian plane took off from Kabul. There are more than 100 Ukrainian citizens on board,” Kuleba said.
On the morning of August 22, the Ukrainian military transport aircraft Il-76MD of the Ukrainian Air Force, which took off from the Afghan airport of Kabul the day before, arrived in Boryspil. On board there were 83 passengers, of whom 31 were citizens of Ukraine.
All Ukrainian national personnel of NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan returned to Ukraine from June 1 to June 5.
“The planned return took place due to the decision of the NATO side to terminate the mission, which was adopted on April 14, 2021, following a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of foreign ministers and defense ministers of the Mission’s contributing states,” the Defense Ministry of Ukraine said.
In total, the NATO mission in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan included 21 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The main tasks of the Ukrainian national personnel included fulfilling duties as staff officers at the mission headquarters; conducting engineering reconnaissance of traffic routes, objects and terrain; implementation of measures to counter the use of improvised explosive devices and the disposal of explosive objects, and others.
“The experience gained in fulfilling the tasks of NATO-led Resolute Support Mission will be used by Ukrainian servicemen at home. In particular, carrying out tasks for the purpose of countering the Russian armed aggression in the area of the Joint Force Operation,” the Defense Ministry said.
NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan launched on 1 January 2015 as part of the implementation of the decisions of the Alliance Summit in Chicago (May 2012) to provide the Afghan government with further assistance in the development of the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces.
“Resolute Support” in Afghanistan officially replaced another International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation, which ended on December 28, 2014.
