Ukraine's Zelenskyy on PS752: We Insist on Full Admission, Expect Justice

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded Iran conducts a "full, open" investigation and pays financial compensation for the damage done by the accidental shootdown of a Ukrainian aircraft on January, which led to 176 casualties.

"We expect Iran to bring those responsible to justice, return the bodies, pay compensation and issue an official apology," the president wrote on Twitter shortly following the statement from Iran officials admitting the mistake.

READ MORE: Iran Admits Accidentally Shooting Down Ukrainian Plane

Around 72 hours after the tragic event and little official information from Iran, the government issued an apology statement through their English-language news service PressTV early on January 11. In it, Iran's general staff of the armed forces referred to "human error" at a time of crisis following "U.S. adventurism" as the reason the disastrous event occurred.

"Under such sensitive and critical conditions, the Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 took off from the Imam Khomeini airport and while rotating, it was placed completely in the position of approaching a sensitive military center in the altitude and trajectory of an enemy target," the Iranian statement read.

This follows Iran's initial blasting of information anonymously shared by two U.S. officials and one Iraqi official with Newsweek news site. The earlier statement made by an Iranian government spokesperson on January 10 called the anonymous allegation that the plane was shot down by an"Iranian missile system" a "well-calculated psychological operation" by the U.S. government.

176 people, including 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 4 Afghans, and as well as 3 Germans and 3 U.K. citizens died in the January 8 accident.

READ MORE: What We Know About the Victims of the Deadly Tehran-Kyiv Flight

/By Maria Romanenko

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