The Afghan crisis is being felt by most NATO member states across Europe, with some predicting a new migrant crisis and others desperately trying to evacuate as many people as possible from Kabul before August 31. 

Anticipating a new refugee crisis, Turkish authorities are reinforcing their border with Iran with police and army patrols. The use of helicopters and night-vision goggles reflect how determined they are to avoid another influx of refugees and migrants.

European Union officials are already conceding it may be "impossible" to evacuate everyone at risk. There is just over a week until the last day of August, the deadline set by the U.S. to evacuate people on the ground.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, there are reports of tens of thousands of people trying to escape the country.

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had called a virtual G7 leader's meeting for Tuesday to discuss the crisis and urged governments to find ways to prevent conditions from getting worse.

"It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years," Johnson said on Twitter on Sunday.

A planeload of evacuees, including Ukrainian and Afghan nationals, arrived in Kyiv to be met by soldiers, medics, officials and Ukraine's foreign minister.

"We have representatives from the international media and international humanitarian organizations, which were under threat in Afghanistan. Ukraine has helped them to escape and to start a new life in safety," said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs.  

Overnight in the UK, more than 200 people arrived on a military plane at the Royal Airforce base in Brize Norton. The UK government has promised to resettle up to 5,000 Afghans. 

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair who took the UK, with the U.S., into war against the Taliban in October 2001 – has published an essay on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He says the decision to abandon the people of Afghanistan is "tragic, dangerous [and] unnecessary. The decision to return Afghanistan to the same group from which the carnage of 9/11 arose seems almost designed to parade our humiliation."

And he asked, "has the West lost its strategic will?" 

Many will find his comments on TV and in daily newspapers galling. He's seen as the architect in Europe who galvanized and led the support of several nations for the American administration of President George W Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the meantime, the UK government's minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, confirmed it used Australian Air Force planes to repatriate British nationals from Kabul.

"In the last 24-hour period, 1,721 people have been airlifted from Kabul by the Royal Air Force and that's across eight Royal Air Force flights."

Asked if Britain would evacuate all British nationals out of Afghanistan, Heappey said, "absolutely nobody can say that we'll be able to get everybody out. The hard reality of complex, chaotic, dangerous situations like this is that that simply may not be the case."

He went on to say that the UK government should not rush to officially recognize the Taliban. "Anything that they're doing that is good on the ground in Kabul right now, like for example the improvements in marshalling that they've put in place overnight, does not in any way detract from the deep skepticism that many of us feel about what they may yet prove to be."

Abdul Qari Shaoib, a Taliban official, has urged Afghans to stay and improve the country. 

"We have no personal problem with anyone. Amnesty has been given to all government officials, so they should honestly serve the country," he said.

There is just over a week for foreign governments to honor their pledges to bring their citizens home safely and offer safe passage to Afghans who worked for them in the past 20 years.

Video editor: James Ireland