What happened in Kyiv and Tehran on 17 January 2020?

What did a single Friday, 17 January 2020, reveal about two governments under pressure? In Kyiv and Tehran, leaders faced scrutiny of very different kinds, and both answered it publicly.

In Ukraine, 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, so the resignation offer did not take effect.

In Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered a Friday sermon, his first in eight years. He defended the Revolutionary Guards over their accidental killing of passengers aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. He also praised Operation Martyr Soleimani for delivering what he called 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 Revolutionary Guard Corps had shot the aircraft down on 8 January 2020, and the revelation prompted anti-government protests. Those demonstrations formed part of the wider unrest in Iran that January, which followed the crackdown on the 2019 protests.

The two stories were separate, but the day put Ukraine in both. One was a domestic question of whether a prime minister could stay in office after a leaked recording. The other was a foreign leader's defence of the military force responsible for downing a Ukrainian airliner.

On 17 January 2020, the first matter appeared settled by the president's decision. The second remained open, with anger in Iran still rising.