Iran ready to compensate families of Ukrainian plane crash victims

Kiev, June 6 Iran is ready to pay $150,000 in compensation to the families of each victim killed in a Ukrainian passenger airplane downed near Tehran in January 2020, the Iranian Embassy in Kiev said.

"The Iranian delegation announced its readiness to pay compensation to Ukrainian families of those killed in the tragedy $150,000 for each victim, following the resolution of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and asked the Ukrainian delegation to bring this information to the notice of the relatives of the Ukrain who passed away," said a statement published by the Embassy on Saturday after the third round of talks on the crash.

During the negotiations, the parties also discussed a wide range of issues related to criminal proceedings and technical issues, including aviation and flight safety, as well as Iran's final report on the tragedy.

The third round of talks between Ukraine and Iran took place in Kiev on June 2-3.

On March 17 of this year, Iran's Civil Aviation Organization published its final report on the crash, identifying a "mistake" by the air defence operator as the cause of the accident.

However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticised the Iranian report, calling it a "cynical attempt" to hide the true reasons for the downing of the plane.

The Kiev-bound Ukrainian Boeing 737 passenger plane with 179 people on board crashed on January 8, 2020, shortly after taking off from the Iranian capital of Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.

The aircraft was shot down by Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps with two missiles.

Later, Iran's armed forces confirmed that an "unintentional" launch of a military missile by the country was the cause of the incident.

In July 2020, the transcript of the black boxes from the plane confirmed the fact of an illegal interference with the plane.