COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Countries whose citizens were killed when Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian plane said on Friday they wanted Iran to “provide justice and ensure that Iran fully repairs the families of the victims and the affected countries.”
In a joint statement marking the one-year anniversary of the crash of Ukraine International Flight 752, Ukraine, Canada, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Sweden said they wanted Tehran to “provide a full and detailed explanation of the events and decisions that they drove to this awful crashed plane. “
Earlier, Sweden said Iran had agreed to compensate the families of foreign victims.
The shooting by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard took place on the same night that Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting American soldiers in Iraq, its response to the American drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3.
The plane was on its way to the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The victims included 57 Canadian citizens, as well as 11 Ukrainians, 17 people from Sweden, four Afghans and four British citizens. Those in Sweden included both Swedish nationals and people with a residence permit in the Scandinavian country.
At first, Iran denied involvement in the plane crash, but then announced that its army had mistakenly and unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian plane.
The statement was signed by ministers from Afghanistan, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
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This story has been corrected to remove the reference to France, which had no nationals on board the downed aircraft.