Ukrainian diplomats honor victims of plane crash near Tehran

On the third anniversary of the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, employees of the Embassy of Ukraine in Iran have honored the memory of the victims at the crash site and at the Alley of Memory created by the Ukrainian diplomatic mission last year.

Ukraine's charge d'affaires ad interim in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Yevhen Kravchenko, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"Today, on the third anniversary of the crash of UIA Flight PS752, embassy staff traditionally visited the site of the plane crash in the morning and honored the memory of our citizens and other passengers who were on board the plane. We laid flowers, lit 11 candles and remembered each of our citizens by name - nine crew members and two passengers," the diplomat said.

He noted that this year in Tehran there were almost no visual reminders of this tragedy, while in previous years many billboards and posters could be seen in the city.

On January 8, 2020, the Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv was downed 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). All of them died.

After several days of denials, the Iranian authorities admitted that the Ukrainian plane had been unintentionally shot down with an anti-aircraft missile.

On December 29, 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the flight PS752 crewmembers the titles of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Golden Star.