Ukraine receives draft report on UIA plane crash from Iran – Kuleba

Ukraine has received from Iran a draft technical report on the circumstances of the crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, which occurred near Tehran on January 8, 2020.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said this in an interview with the Obozrevatel online newspaper.

"We received the draft report on December 31, as they say, under the Christmas tree. We have two months for comments and remarks. This is a rather important stage for further movement forward, without which it would be impossible to achieve compensation and overall justice. Now the word is confirmed by deed," the minister said.

According to him, as for the amount of compensation, which recently got into the information space [the media outlet reported that the Iranian government had agreed to allocate USD 150,000 to the families of each victim of the UIA plane crash], it was made public only through the media. Ukraine has not received any official messages on this matter from Iran, Kuleba noted.

As reported, the official IRNA news agency reported that the Iranian government had agreed to allocate USD 150,000, or the equivalent in euros, to the families of each victim of the UIA plane crash. The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development was instructed to pay off the compensation as soon as possible.

In turn, Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko said that the amount of compensation to families of citizens who died as a result of Iran's shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 should be determined through negotiations between the parties after establishing the causes of the accident and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on Wednesday, 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).

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.

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