Iran confirms missiles that hit Ukrainian airliner were Russian-made

Iran confirmed Tuesday that anti-aircraft missiles that took down a Kyiv-bound commercial airplane two weeks ago were Russian-made. 

The report — released by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization — says that “the impact of these missiles on the accident and the analysis of this action are under investigation,” The Washington Post reports.

The report also requests the help of U.S. and French officials to recover information from the airliner’s “black boxes,” as the recorded data would give investigators a clearer picture of the plane’s final minutes.

This comes as Ukraine and Canada, two of the countries that had large numbers of citizens on the plane, continue to voice their irritation over Iran’s refusal to grant them access to the “black boxes.”

The Jan. 8 crash happened when tensions between the U.S. and Iran were at a crescendo. Just hours before the crash, Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi military bases that house U.S. troops.

The attack was in response to a U.S. airstrike the week prior that killed Iran’s top military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Iran initially denied that it had shot down the plane, but later admitted that it had done so after mistaking the plane for a U.S. missile.