Impunity for past crimes fuels Iran and Russia's ongoing violations: Ukraine on PS752 downing anniversary

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement.

The 176 people on board were citizens of Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, and Iran. 5 years ago, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched two surface-to-air missiles against a civilian airplane in flight.

“We will spare no effort to restore justice and bring those responsible to justice,” the statement reads.

The Ministry claims that Iran has grossly violated a number of international laws, including the use of weapons against a civilian aircraft in flight, failed to take all measures to prevent the downing, and failed to ensure either a transparent and objective investigation into the circumstances of the crash or proper prosecution of the accused.

“Today, Iran continues to assert its status as a murderer by providing military and political support to the Russian Federation in its armed aggression against Ukraine, while the deepening cooperation between the regimes in Moscow and Tehran poses an immediate threat to Europe and the Middle East. Impunity for past crimes encourages Iran and Russia to commit new and new violations of international law. That is why achieving justice is out of extreme importance,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

They also called on the international community to join forces for the sake of international peace and security, including the safety of international civil aviation, and to prevent such disasters from happening in the future.

Downing of flight PS752: background

On January 8, 2020, shortly after takeoff from Tehran, UIA flight PS752 was shot down by two surface-to-air missiles. As a result, all 176 people on board were killed. Iran claimed responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian plane.

In the summer of the same year, Iran sent the black boxes from the UIA plane shot down near Tehran to France for examination. And in January 2021, Iran handed over a draft technical report on the downing of the UIA plane to Ukraine.

Later, in February 2021, it became known that the Canadian government and security agencies were studying an audio recording in which a person whom sources identify as Iran's foreign minister discusses the possibility that the downing of Flight PS752 was a deliberate act. Iran called the recording a fake. At the time, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Iran was hiding important information in the case of the downing.

At the end of November 2021, an international group consisting of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom called on Iran to pay full reparations for the downing of Flight PS752. In January 2022, it became known that Iran refused to negotiate with the international group.

In January 2022, the Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said that the UIA plane crash over Tehran in 2020 had all the signs of a terrorist attack. 

And in April 2023, an Iranian court sentenced ten military personnel to prison in connection with the crash of a UIA passenger plane over Tehran in 2020. Subsequently, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the verdicts against the alleged perpetrators of the downing of Flight PS752 in Iran were fictitious, and that Ukraine would demand justice.

In July 2023, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom filed a lawsuit against Iran at the International Court of Justice.

On January 9, 2024, Ukraine, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada filed a dispute with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) against Iran over the downing of a UIA flight over Tehran in January 2020.