On the anniversary of the crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in Iranian airspace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on the international community to join forces for international peace and security, including the safety of international civil aviation, and the non-recurrence of such disasters in the future.

“Iran brutally violated a number of rules of international law: it used weapons against a civil aircraft in flight, failed to take all practicable 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 persons,” reads a statement released by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

The ministry recalled that a year ago, the International Coordination and Response Group for the Victims of Flight PS752, consisting of Ukraine, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom, initiated the proceedings before the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) against Iran for its breach of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention).

These proceedings continue to progress, and the next steps of the Coordination Group to hold Iran accountable within the ICAO Council will be taken in the coming months.

In October 2024, the Coordination Group also submitted a Memorial within the case related to the downing of PS752 before the International Court of Justice. Ukraine, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom supported this key document in the case with irrefutable evidence of Iran’s breaches of the 1971 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation (the Montreal Convention).

“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 stressed.

As reported, the UIA Boeing 737-800 passenger plane, which was supposed to operate flight PS 752 on the Tehran-Kyiv route, was shot down near the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran immediately after takeoff early in the morning on January 8, 2020. There were 167 passengers and nine crew members onboard. They all died. Among the dead there were 11 citizens of Ukraine (including nine crew members), 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and three citizens of Great Britain.

On January 11, Iranian authorities admitted that Boeing was shot down by the Iranian military mistakenly. Later, commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that took full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.