11.01.2020 19:13

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had a phone conversation with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani.

“Acknowledgment of shooting down our plane is a step in the right direction. I insist on the immediate completion of the identification of bodies and their return to Ukraine. The perpetrators should be brought to justice. We look forward to full legal and technical cooperation in the future,” reads the statement of the President of Ukraine on Twitter.

As reported, 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 – 167 passengers (including two Ukrainians) and nine crew members (all Ukrainians). There were 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, ten citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany, and three citizens of the UK.

Previously, it was claimed that the crash had been caused by technical problems. Early today, Iran announced that it had shot down the UIA passenger plane accidentally. The plane was perceived as a hostile object as it approached Iran’s sensitive military base after take-off.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

(C)UKRINFORM 2020