Iran Will Pay $150,000 to Families of Each Victim of Downed Ukrainian Plane

Iran will pay out $150,000 to the families of each of the 176 people killed aboard a Ukrainian plane that was shot down in January by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Iran’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved the allocation of the funds, the state news agency IRNA reported, citing the country’s vice president for legal affairs.

The Ukraine International Airlines plane crashed after taking off from Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Jan. 8, 2020. All 167 passengers and nine crew members aboard were killed. The Revolutionary Guard mistook the plane on the radar for an incoming missile, at a time when tensions were high with the United States following the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani by a US drone and a retaliatory strike by the guard on two US bases in Iraq.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the amount of compensation should be set through negotiations between the two countries.

IRNA reported that Iran would pay the compensation to the victims’ families “without considering their race and nationalities in compliance with international norms.”