NUR-SULTAN – In the run-up to the Nauryz holiday Kazakh diplomats were awarded for their efforts to repatriate fellow citizens back home from Ukraine, according to a presidential decree from March 17, reports the Akorda press service.
Citizens board the repatriation flight. Photo credit: Kazakh Foreign Ministry
State awards of different degrees were given to Kazakh Ambassador in Ukraine Darkhan Kaletayev, Counselor of the Kazakh Embassy in Ukraine Duman Kyzyr, head of the Kazakh diaspora in Kharkiv Makka Karazhanova, Kazakhstan’s Honorary Consul in Lviv Galina Maslyuk, Advisor to the Kazakh Embassy in Ukraine Aslan Alibekov.
Kazakhstan’s diplomatic missions in neighbouring countries to Ukraine were also involved in the repatriation. The awards were presented to Attaché-consul at the Kazakh Embassy in Romania Azamat Kagenov, Chargé d’affaires ad interim at the Kazakh Embassy in Moldova Rustem Jamankulov, Second Secretary – Consul at the Kazakh Embassy in Russia Darkhan Mamanov, First Secretary – Consul at the Kazakh Embassy in Poland Bekzat Sabituly.
Deputy Director of Department of the Foreign Ministry Ruslan Amangeldin, Assistant Consul of the Kazakh Embassy in Ukraine Anna Denisenko, Second Secretary of the Kazakh Embassy in Ukraine Azamat Karzhaubaev and head of Kazakhstan’s Volunteer Corps Shyngys Tuyakbaev also received the state award.
The joint efforts of Kazakh diplomats both abroad and in Kazakhstan helped Kazakh citizens return home and reunite with their families and loved ones. According to the Kazakh Embassy in Ukraine, 836 people were evacuated from Ukraine, and 690 of them returned to Kazakhstan by repatriation flights.
The latest and sixth repatriation flight left Katowice town in Poland, for Kazakhstan on March 16. Carrying 14 passengers on board. The first flight on March 1 brought 175 Kazakh citizens home.
For many of them, the journey was long and exhausting, and sometimes quite dangerous. Planning logistics was not easy due to the ongoing conflict. The Kazakh diplomats accompanied citizens on buses from Kyiv and Lviv to the Polish border, where the Kazakh embassy and local officials ensured a green corridor for the Kazakh citizens to reach the airport in Katowice in southern Poland.
Some citizens flew to Kazakhstan from Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.
