The Belarusian airspace is not safe for all participants of air traffic, Lithuania will work with other countries to close it for international flights. This is stated in the message of the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Shimonite, published on Monday, May 24, on the website of the government of the country.
"The EU must take effective measures to protect all persons, regardless of their nationality, who are at risk of inadequate actions by the regime," the report says. According to Shimonite, what happened in Belarus is an attack not only on Lithuania. This has become a sign for the entire European Union and international organizations, she said.
The European Union should assess the possibility of abandoning the use of Belarusian airspace for air traffic, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevich said, the Delfi portal reported. As he added, the EU leaders plan to discuss the incident with the forced landing of the plane in Minsk.
It is necessary to assess how safe it is to fly to the republic, the diplomat said.
According to him, on Sunday, all the passengers of the plane were under threat. In this regard, it is necessary to think about broader sanctions against Minsk.
Earlier on Monday, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrel, called for an international investigation into the incident with the landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk. On Sunday, the State of emergency with the landing of a passenger plane of the airline Ryanair began to investigate the Prosecutor General's Office and the police of Lithuania.
The day before, world leaders criticized the incident with the detention of Belarusian opposition leader Roman Protasevich on board a Ryanair Boeing plane flying from Athens to Vilnius, <url> reports. A number of US and European lawmakers have called for a ban on flights over Belarus.
On Sunday, a Ryanair plane en route from Athens to Vilnius urgently landed at the Minsk airport due to reports of mining. According to journalists, the message about the bomb threat came to the post office of the airport call center. A Belarusian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet was raised to accompany the aircraft.
In the evening of the same day, the plane took off from Minsk and landed in Vilnius. About 170 passengers from 12 countries were on board the aircraft.
On board the plane was the founder of the Telegram channel Nexta, recognized as an extremist in Belarus, Roman Protasevich. After the plane landed, he was detained. The Investigative Committee of the republic opened a criminal case on the fact of a false report about the mining of an aircraft.
