Ukraine Knew Initially Rocket Shot Down Ukrainian Plane Over Iran

Ukraine knew on a preliminary basis that Iran shot down Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 on January 8, the same day as the incident, but decided not to go public with the information because it wanted to get access to the crash site.

Kyiv conclusively knew Iran’s military was to blame the following day yet told its embassy in Tehran to rule out a terrorist act in its statement, National Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov told Current Time, a television and digital network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America.

The reason being, he said on January 13, is that the situation room in Kyiv wanted Iran to accept Ukraine’s team of investigators.

“After we received confirmation from Tehran that they were waiting for us, this information was removed,” Danilov said.

Opposition politicians had criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for not announcing findings sooner that Iran had likely shot down the airliner on January 8, killing all 176 people on board, including 11 Ukrainians.

Danilov posited that the prime ministers of Britain and Canada came out with statements laying the blame on an Iranian rocket for “political reasons.”

However, Kyiv took a “pragmatic” approach because “our task was to discover the truth,” Danilov said.

When asked if such actions were provocative, Danilov justified them as “goal-oriented.”

He said Ukraine’s investigators believe the rocket that shot down the airliner was a Russian-made Tor missile.

When Iran acknowledged shooting down the plane after nearly three days of denials, Danilov said it “relieved some tension.”

It was confirmation that Ukraine “went down the right path,” he said.

Danilov said he had faith in his team’s conclusions because it consisted of the same people who investigated the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukrainian skies in July 2014.

An international team of investigators led by the Netherlands has concluded that Russia was responsible for shooting down the airliner in which all 298 people aboard were killed.

Russia has rejected the conclusions of the investigation.