The wife of a pilot whose passenger jet was accidentally shot down by Iran begged him not to fly.
All 176 people on board Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 from Tehran to Kyiv were killed when the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile defense system moments after take-off.
A military statement carried by Iranian state media said the plane was mistaken for a "hostile target", adding that the military was at its "highest level of readiness" amid heightened tensions with the US.
Katerina Gaponenko told Sky News that she asked her husband Volodymyr not to fly to Iran amid escalating tensions between Iran and the US.
Initially she had expected the return flight from Kyiv to Tehran to be cancelled. When it was not she said she became worried.
The mother-of-two recalled their final conversation on the day he left Ukraine to fly to Tehran.
She said: "I asked him: 'Do not fly, do not do it.' But he said: 'We can't backtrack, if it is not me, there is no one else. If it flies on schedule, I need to fly.' I asked him to stay."
Mr Gaponenko flew the Boeing 737 from Kyiv to Tehran on January 7.
The next day, only minutes after taking off on its return journey, the plane came crashing down again.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that his country expects "assurances" from Iran of a "full and open investigation, bringing the perpetrators to justice".
He said Ukraine expected the "paying of compensation" and "official apologies through diplomatic channels".
The majority of the plane crash victims were Iranians or Iranian-Canadians, while at least four of the victims are believed to be British nationals.
