Inside the purgatory where Afghans are trying to take the longest three steps in the world
It’s only a gate. A big, reinforced iron gate protected by paratroopers, but nevertheless it is just a gate.
On one side a rocky drive leads to a complex of apartments and offices and tree-lined streets filled with evacuees.
On the other side, it is a vision of misery.
There is a dusty, rubbish strewn street filled with thousands of people desperate to take the three steps needed to cross the threshold to the Hamid Karzai International Airport and sanctuary.
Right now it’s the longest three steps in the world.
The evacuation effort from Kabul airport is now a multinational nightmare, not just for the US and Britain
For the hopeful they are stuck in a sort of purgatory.
Day, night, it makes no difference – in their thousands they have to wait, sleeping rough and hoping for news.
Hoping they can get into the system, a system that can get them out of Afghanistan.
The truth is most of them probably won’t because they don’t have the right paperwork.
At night we walk past thousands of children, parents and grandparents grabbing sleep where they can or basically passing out from exhaustion. The struggle never stops.
The soldiers do their best to help, but there is no food out here and little water.
Children, parents and grandparents are among those stuck in purgatory while they wait for processing
Thankfully, it is cooler at night. But when the sun comes up the true horror of the conditions these people are living in is obvious, and it is absolutely dreadful.
In the American section of the processing chain, they are penned in behind cement road blocks and guarded by hundreds of armed, sunglass-wearing US Marines.
The heightened security threat alert identified by the Americans means there’s no movement allowed at all.
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Taliban crowd help making ‘big difference’ – minister
There is no shade here, only what can be fashioned from scarves and plastic bags.
Soldiers are slowly trying to work through paperwork belonging to thousands of people but the conditions of entry to the United States are getting stricter and more and more are failing the eligibility test.
Even those who have been contacted by the State Department to go to the airport for a flight out have been denied.
We met one woman, a worker for USAID, who struggled through the crowds for a day with her family and elderly mother.
She got through the gate, had her documents checked by multiple US soldiers, spent the night outside sleeping without any food or water, and once she got to the final step, was told the flight was only for American passport holders.
Instead of putting her family in a separate section of the crowd, the American soldiers threw them out of the airport complex.
They now have to run the gauntlet – again – if they can bear to.
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Kabul evacuation ‘calmer, but that could change’
At the British end of the process, the paratrooper and Taliban cooperation is actually working quite well. They are at least communicating.
You couldn’t make it up – Taliban fighters oversee the crowds from sea containers the paras put in a couple of days ago to create a screening barrier.
Containing the crowds is vital here and clearing up this evacuation mess requires some pretty lateral thinking and that means working with the “enemy”.
Obviously after 20 years of fighting this is something of a culture shock for the soldiers but also the Taliban.
The commanding officer of 3 Para, who have been brought in to assist in the crisis, said it was a simple fact that if the paratroopers weren’t there to do it “nobody else would”.
“The main thing for us is to make sure that we have a smooth system to get those entitled people through,” Lt Col Will Hunt told us.
Lt Col Will Hunt said soldiers have put thoughts of ‘previous tours aside’ to work with the Taliban on restoring order
Soldiers are slowly trying to work through paperwork belonging to thousands of people
“At the moment that involves an element of the Taliban being here alongside us as you would’ve seen while you’ve been here – and also we have to put our thoughts of previous tours aside because obviously everyone’s trying to get the safest situation here, which is to avoid a humanitarian crisis and bring those people through who need to.”
This airlift is now a multinational nightmare, not just for the US and Britain.
In the crowds they try to identify themselves to the soldiers and foreign services of countries they have links to.
One group are wearing T-shirts with Finland and the country’s flag drawn on it.
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But there are plenty of other countries as well: Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Germany, Austria… the list goes on.
Their days are spent hoping someone will spot them and take them out of this hellhole and put them on a plane.
The wait is often days and days.
In the horrendous rush to get here families have been split. We saw posters for missing children dotted among the crowds.
People search for their loved ones in a daze of panic – but this is a tough environment and only a few will make the flights.
Only some will go as a complete family, and nobody knows how long they have left before the flights stop. It is purgatory.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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