Ukraine on Monday urged Iran to return the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger plane shot down by the Iranian military with all 176 people on board killed

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said returning the boxes would show that Iran was committed to an unbiased investigation of the Jan. 8 tragedy.

"His main task is to apologize and acknowledge what happened," said Prystaiko. He hopes that they can go further than just political discussions and discuss practical problems, among which returning of the black boxes is the focus. Prystaiko was speaking as an Iranian delegation led by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami was visiting Kiev to discuss the incident.

The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Iranian experts were expected to assess Ukraine's technical ability to decode the black boxes. A statement said the wreckage of the aircraft was to be returned to Ukraine.

"I promised the families and relatives of the victims, I promised the people of Ukraine that the truth will be established. We must know what happened," the statement quoted Zelenskiy as telling the Iranian minister.

Hassan Rezaifar, a director in charge of accident investigations at Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, told Iranian official news agency IRNA that they are trying to read the black boxes in Iran, and "no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country."

Many of those killed were Iranians with dual citizenship, but Iran does not recognize dual nationality and said it would treat the victims as Iranian nationals.

Ukraine held a ceremony at Kiev's Boryspil airport on Sunday as the bodies of 11 citizens, including nine crew members, were returned.

Canada, which had 57 citizens on the flight, said there were still no firm plans for downloading the recorders. Ottawa has called for the black boxes to be sent over.

(With input from Reuters, cover photo from Reuters)