After what is being called the hijacking of a Ryanair flight from Athens-Vilnius on Sunday, heads of state and governments of the European Union on Monday rushed to agree a fresh wave of economic sanctions against Belarus. The European Council meeting document “strongly condemns the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, Belarus, on 23 May 2021 endangering aviation safety, and the detention by Belarusian authorities of journalist Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega.”
The EU is demanding the immediate release of those two detained individuals and is calling on all EU-based carriers to avoid overflight of Belarus, and to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines as well as preventing them access to EU airports. The Union is also calling on the International Civil Aviation Organization to urgently investigate the case.
Furthermore, EU leaders have promised to adopt further targeted economic sanctions soon and to expand upon listings of persons to its sanctions’ framework. The latter will add onto last years’ EU list on which Lukashenko and some 60 of his cronies are named after pro-democracy crackdowns took place in Belarus.
The new sanctions will force EU airlines to burn by avoiding Belarusian airspace.
Source: BBC
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