UIA plane crash: Ukraine waiting for arrival of Iranian delegation this week

Ukraine does not accept the argument of human error in shooting down a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane over Tehran. Kyiv expects Iran to conduct an impartial investigation and bring all those responsible to justice and pay compensation.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this at a briefing on Tuesday, July 21, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

“We do not accept the argument of human error, Iran must explain in every detail what happened. In the modern world, it is beyond the power of one person to shoot down a plane on his own, even if he is extremely cunning, talented and full of evil intentions. We must raise the issue more broadly, not about human error, but about the functioning of the Iranian airspace control system in general," the minister stressed.

According to him, the Ukrainian side wants to know whether this system was functioning at the time when the plane was shot down, whether it functioned correctly, whether there was any interference in its activities and what is the real reason that a peaceful Ukrainian plane was shot down over Iran. “Why was it the Ukrainian plane, and not other planes that were in the Iranian airspace in that time,” Kuleba said.

The minister noted that Ukraine expects that Iran will conduct a qualitative criminal investigation and bring all those responsible to justice. "We are still determined to cooperate with the Iranian side on the basis of the principle of reciprocity," he said.

At the same time, the official said that the Iranian side had expressed its readiness to come to Kyiv this week to negotiate compensation.

“Yesterday we received information that the Iranian delegation is ready to arrive in Ukraine this week to negotiate compensation with us. We have long insisted on such a visit. We are ready for negotiations and expect that today Iran will officially confirm the visit of its representatives and the negotiations will take place in Kyiv this week,” the minister said.

In addition, he recalled that the black boxes were read yesterday and, according to his information, the process was successful.

The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane (flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after it took off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on January 8. 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). All passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

On July 18, France's Bureau for Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) received Flight PS752’s recorders from Iran.

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