Ukraine: Who gave the order to fire a missile at the plane?

Ukraine's foreign minister has once again called on Iran to hand over the black boxes of the downed Ukrainian airliner. He called cooperation with Iran "difficult." Iran says it has no plans to hand over the black boxes.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko reiterated his country's demand for the black boxes of the passenger plane that was shot down in Iran. A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing passenger plane was shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' air defenses on January 9, killing 176 people on board.

Ukraine's foreign minister told foreign journalists in Rome on Monday (February 10) that working with Iran to clarify the details of the incident "has been very difficult from the beginning. But we continue to insist on our demand."

Vadym Prystaiko emphasized that Ukraine demands access to information recorded on the plane's black box.

Bloomberg News reports that Iran is under international pressure to release more information about the cause of the downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines flight.

Data recorded in the black box and cockpit voice recorders may hold clues about when the plane was hit by a missile. The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 was hit minutes after taking off from Tehran International Airport.

The Islamic Republic's state news agency, IRNA, reported the day after the plane was shot down: "Iran has no plans to send the plane's black box to Ukraine or any other country."

"Now we need to plan how we can both access the black box and continue the investigation," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Monday. "We are working with five countries."

After the downing of the plane, Iran denied that it had been hit by a missile, but with the release of videos and information showing that the plane had been hit by a missile, Iranian officials were forced to admit that the Revolutionary Guards' air defenses had shot down the passenger plane.

Iran says “human error” was the cause of the disaster. A month later, it is still unclear how this human error occurred.

Ukraine says we want to know who gave the order to fire a missile at this plane.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister has now reiterated that it is not a matter of "a soldier hastily firing a missile and overreacting. We want to find out the chain of command and who gave the order so that justice can be served to him."

Source: DW