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Two Ukrainian stories still unresolved on 20 January 2020
Summary
A look back at what had been reported by 20 January 2020 on Flight 752 and on Kyiv's prime-ministerial offer to resign.
What did the days before 20 January 2020 leave unresolved for Ukraine? Two reported developments, one abroad and one at home, framed the question.
Tehran and Flight 752
On 17 January 2020, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered a Friday sermon, his first in eight years. As reported at the time, he defended the Revolutionary Guards over the accidental killing of passengers aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, and praised Operation Martyr Soleimani as a "slap on the face" to the United States. The sermon came as public anger mounted against the Iranian government over its handling of the disaster.
The airliner had been shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on 8 January 2020. The anger formed part of the protests that followed in Iran that month, which grew out of the crackdown on the 2019 Iranian protests.
Kyiv's cabinet question
The same day, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submitted his resignation. The move followed the leak earlier that week of an audio clip in which he allegedly criticised President Volodymyr Zelensky's economic policies. Zelensky subsequently announced that Honcharuk would be allowed to keep his position.
Where things stood
By 20 January 2020, then, the Iranian leadership had publicly stood by the Guards despite domestic anger over the downing of a Ukrainian-operated airliner, while in Kyiv a resignation had been offered and declined. The two stories were unrelated in cause, but both left open how far officials would answer to public pressure.
