The European Union is considering avoiding Belarusian airspace and banning its national carrier Belavia from EU airports after Belarusian authorities deployed military aircraft to force a Ryanair passenger plane to land in Minsk.
An Irish Ryanair flight from the Greek capital Athens to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius was diverted by Minsk authorities to Minsk city airport on Sunday (May 23) as it passed over Belarus on its normal route, during which Belarus used military aircraft to ensure the plane complied with the instructions.
Immediately after the plane landed, Belarusian authorities arrested a passenger, opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich, who was on board.
Belarusian authorities announced last November that Protasevich and Stsyapan Putsila, also a NEXTA Live executive, were under investigation for allegedly organizing mass disorder, disturbing public order and inciting social hatred. The event.
EU leaders have strongly condemned the incident. According to Reuters, the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said Belarusian airspace should be declared “unsafe” and that the EU-27 should close its airspace to Belarusian flights. Poland wants to suspend all flights from Belarus to the EU until Plutacevic is released.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said on Monday: “We will work together with international partners to close Belarusian airspace for international flights.”
Reuters also said it was unclear whether this amounted to a legal ban and who would enforce or oversee it. A Brussels diplomat said a meeting of EU leaders at 5 p.m. GMT (12 p.m. EST) would likely send only a “political signal” to avoid Belarusian airspace.
Speaking ahead of the special session, EU Council President Charles Michel said yesterday’s incident was an international scandal. It is unacceptable that the lives of European civilians are at risk, “so we have put the discussion on sanctions on the table of the European Council, we have prepared different options, different measures that could be taken, and I hope that tonight we can make a decision on this.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also tweeted on Sunday: “The brutal and illegal actions of the Belarusian regime will have consequences. Those responsible for the Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned. Journalist Platasevich must be released immediately. The EC will discuss the action to be taken tomorrow.”
In a statement Sunday, Secretary of State John Blinken said the alarming move by Lukashenko’s authorities threatened the lives of more than 120 passengers on board, including U.S. citizens, and that “we are coordinating our response closely with our partners, including officials from the European Union, Lithuania and Greece.”
British Foreign Secretary George Raab on Monday called for the immediate release of Platasevich and other political prisoners being held in Belarus. The U.K. is coordinating a response with our allies, including further sanctions,” he said in a statement. The UK is also calling on ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, to urgently convene a meeting to consider the Belarusian government’s flouting of international rules protecting civil aviation.”
Xinhua, the official Communist Party media, citing the Belarusian state news agency, reported that the passenger plane had made an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport due to a bomb threat. The plane was inspected and no explosive device was found, then re-taken off and landed at its destination in Vilnius. The Belarusian Investigative Committee has filed criminal charges against the false bombing.
For its part, Russia has accused the West of hypocrisy. “It is only shocking that the West calls an incident in Belarusian airspace ‘shocking,'” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
She said, “Either they should be shocked that the Bolivian president’s plane made a forced landing in Austria at the request of the United States …… or they should not be shocked by similar behavior by others.”
Zakharova was referring to the forced landing of the Bolivian president’s plane, a reference to the July 2, 2013 incident in which Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane was denied access to airspace on his way home from Russia because several European countries suspected it was carrying former U.S. CIA employee Edward Snowden, forcing the plane to eventually make a forced landing in Austria.
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