Poland halts Afghan airlift over safety as US deadline looms

‘We cannot risk the lives of our diplomats and of our soldiers any longer,’ says deputy foreign minister, as evacuation chaos continues.

Poland ends its evacuations from Afghanistan, according to an official, making it one of the first Western countries to halt operations helping people flee the Taliban takeover as a full American withdrawal looms. Marcin Przydacz, a Polish deputy foreign minister, said on Wednesday that a group taken from Kabul, and now in Uzbekistan, was the last group evacuated by Poland. President Joe Biden declared the day before that he is sticking to his August 31 deadline for completing the US pullout, ramping up pressure on the already risky airlift from Kabul to get out as many people as possible in the coming days.