Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Kabul: Ukraine's news on 17 August 2021
A look back at how events in Afghanistan and in Kryvyi Rih touched Ukraine in mid-August 2021.
What did Ukraine's public life look like on 17 August 2021? Two developments, one international and one local, defined the moment.
On that date, Sahraa Karimi, the Afghan film director and general director of the state film company Afghan Film, was evacuated from Afghanistan to Kyiv after the Taliban took Kabul. Her arrival placed the Ukrainian capital within the aftermath of the Afghan capital's fall.
A death in Kryvyi Rih
Two days earlier, on 15 August 2021, Konstantin Pavlov, the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, was found dead at his home. As reported at the time, he had a gunshot wound, and he was described as a pro-Russian mayor. The National Police of Ukraine said they were establishing the circumstances of his death and had opened a criminal case.
The two stories were unrelated, but together they showed how quickly events abroad and at home could reach Ukraine's institutions and public. For Kyiv, the immediate matter on 17 August was the arrival of an evacuee from Kabul. In Kryvyi Rih, it was an open police investigation into the death of the city's mayor.
