Honcharuk's resignation offer and the days after 17 January 2020
A look back at the Ukrainian prime minister's offer to resign after a leaked audio clip, and at the Flight 752 anger in Iran.
What happened to Ukraine's government in the days before 20 January 2020? Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk had submitted his resignation on 17 January 2020, and the question of whether he would stay in office was still unsettled in the public mind when the new week began.
The resignation came after an audio clip was leaked earlier that week. In it, Honcharuk was allegedly heard criticising the economic policies of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Honcharuk then put his resignation in writing. Zelensky subsequently announced that the prime minister was allowed to keep his position.
The episode left the head of government in post, but only after he had formally offered to leave.
Flight 752 anger in Iran
On the same day, 17 January 2020, another story with a Ukrainian link unfolded in Tehran. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, gave a Friday sermon, his first in eight years. He defended the Revolutionary Guards over the accidental killing of passengers aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, and he praised Operation Martyr Soleimani as a "slap on the face" to the United States.
His remarks came as public anger mounted against the Iranian government over its handling of the disaster. The protests that followed were anti-government demonstrations, part of wider unrest in Iran in January 2020. They began after it emerged that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had shot the aircraft down on 8 January 2020.
Together, the two developments of 17 January 2020 showed a Ukrainian government dealing with an internal row while the fallout from the downing of the airliner continued abroad.
