At the end of May, Ukraine banned Belarusian airlines from using its airspace due to the incident with the landing of Ryanair and the detention of Roman Protasevich
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk, in response to the decision of the Ukrainian authorities not to allow Belarusian planes into its airspace, will not accept sUkraina planes. His words are quoted by the Telegram channel “Pool of the First”, which is close to the press service of the President.
“Since Ukraine has closed our flight, we will not just accept planes from Ukraine,” Lukashenko said.
Video
Ukraine banned Belarus from using its airspace at the end of May, and the country also announced the termination of air traffic. This decision was made by the authorities after the Ryanair flight landed in Minsk on May 23. The plane was flying from Athens to Vilnius, but urgently landed at the Minsk airport due to reports of mining, which was later not confirmed.
The Ryanair flight was flown by Roman Protasevich, co-founder of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, which is recognized as extremist in Belarus. While checking documents at the Minsk airport, Protasevich was detained, as well as his companion, a Russian woman, Sofya Sapieha.
European countries and the United States strongly condemned the actions of the Belarusian authorities. In connection with the incident, the EU countries announced a ban for Belarusian air carriers to use the airspace and airports of the European Union. European carriers were recommended to fly around Belarus. On June 10, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on increasing pressure on the Belarusian authorities. It is proposed to introduce restrictions against public and private companies that are controlled by the authorities of the republic or are associated with them.
Ryanair said that the pilot who made the emergency landing was under “serious pressure”. The company noted that the airliner could have landed in Poland or other Baltic countries, but the crew had no choice.
Lukashenko, commenting on the emergency landing of the Ryanair plane, said that he “had to protect people” and acted “legally” according to all international rules.