KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2021) Ukraine has not received yet an official offer with the sum of compensation that Tehran will pay the relatives of those who were aboard the plane downed by Iranian military in January 2020, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has told the Obozrevatel news outlet.
In late December, Iranian news agency YJC reported that Iran would pay $150,000 in compensation for every victim of the plane crash near Tehran. Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksiy Danilov, has said that Kiev should not agree to such compensation, deeming it low.
"As for the figures of the [compensation] that have been circulated in information space, it has been communicated exclusively through media. We have not received any official messages from Iran, and the experience of the past year has taught us to be extremely cautious about information in Iranian media. As they say, one should filter every report," Kuleba said in an interview, published on Sunday.
The diplomat added that Kiev would not comment on the size of the compensation until it received an official offer from Tehran.
The Ukraine International Airlines' Kiev-bound fight crashed almost immediately after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020. All 176 people aboard were killed, including nationals of Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Canada, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Three days later, Iran admitted that the jet had been mistakenly shot down by its armed forces, who confused it for a hostile cruise missile. The crash took place amid an escalating confrontation between Tehran and Washington following the US killing of prominent Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in a targeted strike.
