Ukraine has sent the second request to Iran for international legal aid to receive access to the 'black boxes' from the passenger plane of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), which was downed over Tehran on January 8, and to ensure participation of Ukrainian experts in the deciphering procedure, Head of the Department for International Legal Cooperation and Return of Assets of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) Polina Chyzh said at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense on Wednesday.

She also said that following Iran's statement saying that the 'black boxes' were badly damaged and it was possible to open them only in the specific laboratories abroad, Ukraine proposed to use its laboratory at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (NTUU "KPI").

"An expert was supposed to arrive on January 15 to examine the laboratory and in fact approve it. Then he or she would return to Iran, take the 'black boxes' and come back to Ukraine in order to conduct the research together with our experts and the persons we would consider necessary to involve," Chyzh said, adding that on January 14 in the morning they received information that Iran allegedly would not pass the 'black boxes'.

"This information cannot be either confirmed or rejected for this time as we address representatives of Iran. They say that their experts, who promised to arrive today, on January 15, would not come. Yesterday we decided to prepare the second request to Iran for legal aid to give us access to the 'black boxes' and settle the issue regarding possible deciphering of the 'black boxes' by our experts. Still no answer," she said.

Chyzh also said that in the request the Ukrainian side asked Iran to provide it with access to the things which could be used as evidence in the criminal case, for example, fragments of the plane, seats and so on.