Ukrainian

The flag-draped coffins of the 11 Ukrainians who died in a plane mistakenly shot down by Iran amid heightened tensions with Washington arrived in Kiev on Sunday.

The Interior Ministry of Ukraine tells VOA that a special task force involving U.S. and Ukrainian officials will be launched Monday to look into reports that the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine had been subjected to surveillance and threats in Ukraine.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was giving the sermon at the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran, after a traumatic month in which the country had appeared on the brink of war with the US and shot down the Ukrainian jet by mistake with the loss of all 176 people on board.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set to deliver a Friday sermon in Tehran for the first time in almost eight years, as the Islamic Republic grapples with the fallout from the targeted killing of its top general in a US air strike and popular anger after it accidentally downed a Ukrainian passenger jet.

Articles of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress will be formally read to the Senate Thursday, setting in motion a historic trial that threatens the US leader with removal from office.

President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday called for “national unity” and flagged the need for changes to the way Iran is run after the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

The Senate impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump is likely to begin in seven days with key players sworn in later this week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that everyone responsible for the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner last week must be punished.

Iran on Tuesday announced its first arrests over the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner in Tehran last week, after the third night of angry protests over the disaster.

President of the United Nations General Assembly (PGA), Amb. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, on Monday outlined his priorities for the remaining part of his tenure in 2020.

Iran’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned to the Foreign Office to explain why his British counterpart in Tehran was arrested, Downing Street said today.

Earlier, hundreds of people tried to stage demonstrations in Tehran in protest against the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) over Tehran’s airspace

Iranians have gathered in the streets of Tehran to demand the resignation of Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei after the regime admitted it had mistakenly shot down a civilian passenger plane.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday for talks set to focus on flashpoints in the Middle East.

Ukraine International Airlines President Yevhenii Dykhne on Saturday said he never doubted that the airline had not caused the crash of its passenger plane in Iran.

Iran, which admitted on Saturday that it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner killing 176 people, must “learn lessons” from the disaster, the chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a statement on Saturday that his country expects a full investigation, a full admission of guilt and compensation from Iran after the downing of a passenger plane.

The jetliner, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukraine International Airlines, went down on the outskirts of Tehran during takeoff on Wednesday, January 8, just hours after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at US forces in Iraq.