Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on downing of flight PS752
2021-03-18 21:02:10
Ukraine has rejected the Civil Aviation Organisation of Iran's final report on the downing of a Ukrainian jet as a "cynical attempt" to conceal the truth.
Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was hit by two missiles after taking off from Tehran on 8 January 2020. All 176 people on board died.
The CAOI's report blames errors by an air defence unit for the tragedy.
It says an operator "misidentified" the plane as hostile and fired the missiles without authorisation from a commander.
In a video posted on Facebook following the report's publication, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the Iranian investigation "biased", the evidence presented "selective", and the conclusions "deceptive".
"The document does not present all the circumstances, does not reveal the root causes of the tragedy or the chain of actions that led to it. This is not a report, it is a collection of manipulations, the goal of which is not to establish the truth, but to whitewash the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.
Ukraine and four other countries whose citizens or residents were killed - Canada, the UK, Afghanistan and Sweden - have demanded Iran provide a complete and thorough explanation of what happened.
For the first three days after flight PS752 crashed, Iran's armed forces denied any responsibility and the CAOI suggested there had been a technical failure. Authorities also allowed the crash site to be looted and then bulldozed.
But as evidence mounted, the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force said an air defence unit had mistaken the Boeing 737-800 for a US missile.