Taliban Can Seize Panjshir in Mere Hours But Want to Avoid Bloodshed, Russian Ambassador Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Ambassador to Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov said on Saturday that the Taliban* could take over the Panjshir province within hours.

"I think they could take over Panjshir in a day, maybe even in a few hours, but they don't do it to avoid bloodshed," Zhirnov said on air the Soloviev Live YouTube show.

The diplomat added that the situation in the only Afghan province that had not fallen to the Taliban* was relatively calm.

Zhirnov also said that Daesh* attack at the Kabul airport has challenged the Taliban and not the United States, adding that there was a fierce confrontation between the two radical groups.

"The confrontation is irreconcilable. If indeed, it was Daesh behind the airport attack, then it challenged not so much the United States as it did the Taliban. Because the Taliban took responsibility for Afghanistan. And in a way, what happened is a blow to the Taliban’s reputation," the diplomat said. 

He also said that the Western countries did not ask Moscow to recognise the new Afghan authorities.

According to the ambassador, the talks about the possible recognition of the country's new authorities came after "the West realised that there was no alternative to the actual power that is now in Afghanistan, and the Western stake on President [Ashraf] Ghani had failed."

"The fact that the Taliban have come to power is already a reality. And we will have to build relations with this new situation and the new government in Afghanistan," Russia's Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said on Saturday also said on Saturday.

"If the West, and the so-called global community in general, decides to isolate the Taliban and put pressure on them, in this situation, I am afraid that this will radicalise the movement itself," he added.

On August 15, the Taliban entered Kabul, prompting the US-supported civilian government to collapse. The seizure of power has forced thousands of Afghans to try to escape from the country out of fear of reprisals by the militants.

* A terrorist organisation banned in Russia