Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include additional information.
The Ukrainian government is not ruling out the widely accepted theory that Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was downed by an Iranian missile, but this explanation is “not confirmed,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement published on his Facebook page.
On the evening of Jan. 9, multiple Western media outlets reported that Iran had shot down the plane in what was likely a mistake, citing intelligence sources. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau subsequently said that Canadian and allied intelligence indicated Iran had downed the plane, possibly unintentionally.
Ukrainian aviation specialists are currently on the ground in Tehran working with their Iranian counterparts to investigate the Boeing 737-800’s crash on Jan. 8.
“Based upon the latest comments by world leaders to the media, we call upon all our international partners — specifically, the governments of the U.S., Canada and Great Britain — to give data and evidence related to the catastrophe to the commission investigating its cause,” Zelensky said in his statement.
In a previous post on the day of the crash, Zelensky stated,“All possible versions of what occurred must be examined.” He also called on Ukrainians to refrain from spreading conspiracy theories and drawing premature conclusions.
Changing narrative
The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization quickly blamed the crash on technical problems on board the plane. The Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran initially agreed, saying that a missile strike or a terrorist attack had been ruled out as possible causes. Later, however, the embassy backtracked, calling on the public to wait for the results of the official investigation.
Until mid-day on Jan. 9, technical malfunction remained the most widely accepted — albeit not official — explanation for the crash.
Then, that afternoon, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council, told Ukrainian media that investigators were looking into multiple versions, including a missile strike using a Russian-made anti-aircraft system and a terrorist attack on board the plane.
That evening, the narrative shifted again. Western media outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post reported that US officials believed that Iran shot down the plane with a Russian-made missile.
Iranian denial
In his new statement on Jan. 10th, Zelensky assured the public that the investigation into the causes of the crash continues. He said he expects that Iran will provide the experts with access to all information necessary to conduct an objective investigation.
Zelensky also said that he will have a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the afternoon about the investigation into the crash.
Iran has denied downing the plane with a missile.
The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority, Ali Abedzadeh, stated on Jan. 10 that the missile theory should not be considered before analyzing the plane’s black box, which Iran has refused to hand over to international authorities.
But the crash of the Boeing came just hours after Iran fired missiles at two bases used by U.S. forces in neighboring Iraq. The barrage was retaliation for Washington’s targeted killing of a high-level Iranian general on Jan. 3.
Andriy Guck, a partner at the Ante law firm in Kyiv and an aviation expert, believes that Ukraine should not agree with statements by Trudeau and others that the plane was shot down unintentionally.
He cites the case of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which Russia or its proxies in eastern Ukraine shot down in 2014 with a Russian Buk missile launder, as an example.
“Ukraine’s position (in the MH17 case) is that if the shot is aimed at a military target without certainty that it is (indeed) a military target, then this is considered the intent to fire on civilians,” Guck wrote in a Facebook post.
Staff writer Oleksiy Sorokin contributed reporting to this story.
