KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The Foreign Affairs Ministry today rejected reports that the government had mishandled the evacuation of the last Malaysians from Ukraine and forced them to travel to Poland by road in order to escape the Russian invasion of the country.
Wisma Putra said the government had discussed a detailed evacuation plan during the Cabinet meeting on February 16, which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob decided to activate on February 24 to ensure the safety of the Malaysians.
This was in addition to the standard emergency evacuation plans in place at all Malaysian embassies including in Kyiv, it added.
“Allegations such as embassy officials fleeing, absence of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for evacuation and so on, which have been featured in (news) media and social media reports are completely unfounded,” it said in a statement.
To note, Russia launched its full scale invasion into Ukraine on February 24.
“The evacuation mission of Malaysian citizens from Ukraine and sensitive information such as evacuation plans have not been disclosed to the public in order to ensure the safety of all involved in the mission.
“This approach is important to ensure the mission goes smoothly according to the set plan,” it added.
It also said that prior to the evacuation, it had been closely watching developments in Ukraine, and had been communicating with embassy officials there, with Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah also involved.
Earlier today, Wisma Putra announced that the last nine Malaysians — including two Malaysian embassy officials — had managed to escape Kyiv for Poland’s borders, bringing along two foreign national dependents and a Singaporean.
The group is scheduled to leave Warsaw, Poland, for Malaysia on a commercial flight tomorrow. Earlier, 13 Malaysians left Ukraine on February 14 on the advice of the Malaysian embassy in Kyiv.
The officials involved were the embassy’s First Secretary Fadhilah Daud and Second Secretary Aminuddin Osman. The embassy has been temporarily closed following their evacuation.
Yesterday, South China Morning Post (SCMP) published a report that quoted unnamed government sources as saying the Malaysians and their fellow evacuees had resorted to fleeing by road after the Foreign Affairs Ministry bungled evacuation efforts.
Malay Mail is one of the media organisations who picked up the report.
Wisma Putra today confirmed that the evacuation had indeed been done by road, using four cars, two of which belonged to the Malaysian embassy in Kiev.
When announcing the existence of the evacuation mission yesterday, Ismail Sabri — without mentioning that the evacuation was being done by road — had only mentioned eight Malaysians, not nine.
