Iran knew from the very beginning UIA plane shot down by missile - Zelensky

The Iranian side knew from the very beginning that a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) passenger jet had been shot down by a missile, as evidenced by an audio recording of a conversation between the Tehran airport's flight control center and the crew of the Iranian plane that was landing at the time of the crash of the Ukrainian plane.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a comment to the TSN.Tyzhden weekly news program on the 1+1 television channel on Sunday, February 2.

"Now we have one more recording. Why do I say 'one more'? Because a video from an unknown account emerged on the Internet showing something hitting something. At first, it was like that. And now our specialists have a recording. [...] This is a recording of the Tehran flight control center's [conversation] with the Iranian aircraft that was landing at that time. Our plane took off, and the Iranian plane had to start landing at 06:30. He [the Iranian plane's pilot] saw it and the crew started talking to the air traffic controller. Everything can be heard there. He said that 'it seems to me that a missile is flying' - he speaks both Persian and English, everything is recorded there. Indeed, it proves that the Iranian side knew from the very beginning that our plane was hit by a missile. They knew it at the time of the crash. After that shot, the Iranian air traffic controller contacted our aircraft many times, but there was silence," Zelensky said.

In his opinion, the air traffic controller probably understood that the explosion occurred, but he could not understand what caused it.

"Specialists will investigate this recording step by step," Zelensky said.

According to him, Ukraine has rejected from the very beginning the theory of the Iranian side that the crash was caused by a technical failure. "We knew it couldn't be so. I spoke about it, maybe not so openly. But when we came to the parents and relatives of all the deceased, I said that there was no crew error. We know it for sure. We knew then that the plane was new, and the crew was one of the best. We knew that the Iranians - it's not clear who exactly - wanted to illegitimately protect themselves in such a way - to press in the information sphere as if it was a technical mistake. But we already had evidence that it could not be the case," Zelensky said.

A Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on Wednesday, January 8. There were 176 people on board – nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK).

On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.