Ukraine will not take on faith Iran's version of downing of UIA plane, foreign Ministry says

Shafaq News / The Ukrainian Ministry of foreign affairs said that it will not take on faith any version of downing of the Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 that was voiced but not confirmed by real evidence.

In a statement, the ministry drew attention to the comments by representatives of the Iranian Foreign Ministry on the UIA plane crash case.

“Instead of taking into account the objective remarks based on the international experience of investigating air crashes, the Iranian side resorted to irresponsible accusations of the lack of constructiveness of the Ukrainian side," the statement reads.

“The Iranian side is manipulating when it says that during two rounds of negotiations, explanations were given about the causes of the plane crash. These reasons must be officially confirmed by both the technical investigation that Iran was supposed to conduct in accordance with the norms of international law, and the final report, which was published only in March this year - more than 14 months after the disaster. Iran insists on the version of human error as the only correct one. At the same time, there is no analysis of the causes and the chain of events that led to it, if such an error became fatal. This could not but cause just indignation and disappointment on the Ukrainian side," the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry assures that “Ukraine is committed to solid and constructive cooperation with Iran. The very fact that more than 90 pages of comments on the draft final report on the results of the technical investigation, submitted to Iran in February this year, is sufficient evidence of this."

The Foreign Ministry noted that Ukraine's comments were not taken into account.

“Ukraine will not take on faith any version of the flight PS752 crash that has been voiced, but not confirmed by real evidence. However, Iran is trying to promote a favorable version of human error, and, surprisingly, Iran does not even try to analyze the reasons that led to the fatal error, if it really was the cause of the disaster. This means that the correct conclusions will not be drawn, and the safety of civil aviation will not improve," the ministry said.

As reported, on April 6, the Iranian Military Prosecutor's Office filed charges against ten officials in connection with the downing of a passenger plane of Ukraine International Airlines in January 2020.

Ukraine was not informed about the names of ten Iranian officials indicted by the Military Prosecutor's Office over downing of the UIA plane.

On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport. There were 176 people on board – nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK).

On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.

On February 20, 2021, Iran announced the completion of the investigation into this case.