UIA plane crash: Kuleba says Ukraine will not let Iran escape justice
“Iran is a tough negotiator, as well as Ukraine. We will not allow Iran to buy off and avoid justice in this matter. If we had not been a tough negotiator, Iran could have already achieved something. But we stick to our principles. And justice is inevitable. We will obtain it,” Kuleba said in an interview with The Day newspaper.
He noted that this may take time. At the same time, the diplomat stressed that Ukraine is not acting alone.
“We have a partnership of affected countries. We speak on their behalf and share a common position that must be coordinated. We will do our best to make justice inevitable,” the minister assured.
As reported, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin said on December 28 that Ukraine had not received a report on the UIA plane crash, despite repeated assurances from the Iranian side that work on it had been completed.
On December 22, the Iranian media reported that the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran had released the final technical report on the January 8 crash of UIA’s flight PS752 near Tehran and that the report had been given via videoconference to the officials of the countries whose citizens were involved in the incident.
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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