Russia does not want to evacuate embassy in Afghanistan for now

Despite the Taliban's advance on Kabul, Russia is not planning to evacuate its embassy in the Afghan capital for the time being.

There are no plans to evacuate, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Afghanistan envoy, Zamir Kabulov, told the Interfax news agency on Sunday. "The ambassador and our staff are calmly carrying out their duties."

Western states, meanwhile, are speeding up efforts to bring their own personnel and local Afghan forces to safety from the militant Islamist Taliban.

The Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan also instructed on Sunday that the protection of its own diplomats should be stepped up.

According to the Russian diplomat, there had been no fighting around Kabul until then. "Well, this is the sad picture of the consequences of the US presence," Kabulov said.

Since the decision to withdraw international troops, the Taliban in Afghanistan have seized large parts of the country. Russia said it is committed to a diplomatic solution to the conflict.