Maria Mykytiuk, 24, was one of the six Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight attendants who lost their lives after the plane they were on was shot down in Iran on 8 January.

Maria loved to travel and had visited 23 countries, according to her Instagram account. She was due to get married next year.

Her fiancé Bogdan Vynov, 26, told CGTN than when he heard the news, he thought he was in a nightmare: "The evening [when I found out] was so long, I thought every moment, I must wake up, wake up. This must not be true. I must wake up."

Vynov's life has been turned upside down by the events of Wednesday 8 January, when the passenger jet was shot down shortly after take-off in Tehran.

On Saturday 11 January, three days after the crash, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps admitted responsibility, calling it a "disastrous mistake."

UIA has been operating flights to Tehran since 2014. The head of the company said it had no warning of any threat to the aircraft.

But Vynov says the airline should have grounded the flight and blames corporate greed for the tragedy. He said: "They thought everything would be fine. They thought if they cancelled the flight, they would lose money and have to pay compensation."

Portraits of the nine Ukrainian crew members who died in the incident have been placed at a memorial in Boryspil Airport outside the country's capital, Kyiv. In the wake of the catastrophe, people have brought flowers and candles to the site.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the country will honor all those who died and the government is promising compensation to the families of the victims. But for many who lost loved ones, including Bogdan, that is not enough and there are still many unanswered questions. 

Ukraine's foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said the five nations whose citizens died will meet in London on Thursday to discuss possible legal action. He added that Tehran had agreed to hand over the plane's black boxes to Kyiv for investigation.

Of the 176 victims, 11 were from Ukraine, including nine crew members.

Captain Volodymyr Gaponenko, first officer Serhii Khomenko and instructor Oleksiy Naumkin, were the three pilots on board.

Ihor Matkov, was flight PS752's chief attendant. The other flight attendants were named by the airline as Kateryna Statnik, Yuliia Solohub, Denys Lykhno, Valeriia Ovcharuk and Maria Mykytiuk.

Several crew members were graduates of the National Aviation University in Kyiv, including Maria.