One does have to wonder why so many Canadians were on this plane. Europe is much closer and has far more populace, so if they were trafficking around the sanctions, one would have expected mostly EU people (other than Ukrainians), would have been on it.
There is no mystery here. Ukrainian airlines no doubt has the cheapest flight from Toronto to many places in Eatern Europe and the Middle East. The Iranian-Canadians connected in Kiev for the flight to Iran.
Have they released the full passenger list?
I figured they were ethnic Iranians, but it’s not like the US doesn’t have any, same for Europe. Just seems like a lot.
Anyway, I expect we’ll learn more about the passengers in the upcoming weeks.