Ukrainian parliament adopts statement on Iran's responsibility for shooting down UIA plane

A total of 368 MPs voted for the statement at a parliament meeting on Tuesday, January 14, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expresses deep and sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims and parliaments of the countries whose citizens became victims of the crash on January 8, 2020, as well as to the staff of Ukraine International Airlines due to the loss of their colleagues whose high professional level does not cause any doubt. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expects official apologies from the Islamic Republic of Iran for the crash of the Ukrainian plane and the death of its crew and passengers, and calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to acknowledge its full responsibility," the document says.

At the same time, the Verkhovna Rada insists on the need to conduct a transparent, independent and comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of this tragedy, and calls on the Iranian leadership to cooperate openly with foreign states and international organizations, and to provide every possible assistance to their work.

"The tragedy that occurred in the Tehran sky has drawn attention to the existing systemic problems in organizing the air traffic of civil aircraft over the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which need to be carefully studied and solved," the statement said.

At the same time, the Ukrainian parliament calls on the world community and international organizations to support Ukraine in its insistence on conducting the investigation, finding all the perpetrators, punishing them properly, returning the bodies of the dead and ensuring the Iranian side makes all compensation payments.

The Verkhovna Rada also calls on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to take measures to timely assess the risks of civil aviation to prevent such tragedies in the future, and proposes that all international partners jointly develop effective political and technical mechanisms for this purpose.

In addition, the Verkhovna Rada calls on the Ukrainian authorities to fully inform the public about the results of the investigation.

A Ukraine International Airlines plane (flight PS752), en route from Tehran to Kyiv, crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport early on January 8. There were 176 people on board the aircraft. All of them died. The crash killed 11 Ukrainians (two passengers and all nine crew), as well as Iranians, Canadians, Swedes, Afghans, Germans, and Britons.

The Iranian side initially claimed that the plane had crashed due to technical problems.

However, Iran stated on January 11 that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by Iran's armed forces accidentally.

op