After the ongoing politico-diplomatic clash between the EU and Belarus reached a peak in the summer of 2021, press attention turned towards the situation at the Polish-Belarussian border, where thousands of people arrived hoping to travel onwards to EU territory. However, the response from the Lithuanian authorities also merits examination: the country's efforts to prevent irregular arrivals have been widely supported by the EU, despite widespread allegations of fundamental rights violations.
Belarus invites the European Union and the United States to investigate the diversion of the plane in which the detained journalist was traveling archyde.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archyde.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Belarus flag carrier Belavia has been banned from operating at EU airports.
The European Union seems determined not to let Sunday s incident at Minsk airport go by and is pressing for harsh sanctions against the regime of Belarussian leader Aleksander Lukashenko, starting with a ban on all Belarussian aircraft to fly through EU skies.
EU leaders held an emergency summit Monday to bar Belarusian aircraft from operating at EU airports and flying over EU skies in addition to advising all European carriers to suspend flights through that country’s airspace. But this decision still needs further approval to come into effect.
Belarusian leader Lukashenko was admittedly behind the operation
The Government of Belarus Sunday forced a Ryanair Boeing 737 en route from Athens, Greece to Vilnius, Lituania which was flying over their territory to land and make the arrest of 26-year-old dissident journalist Roman Protasevich possible.
Protasevich, journalist and founder of the
Nexta news channel, on Telegram, was among the passengers bound for the Lithuanian capital when a Mig-29 fighter jet from the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko plus a bomb threat led the pilots to land at Minsk airport where the arrest took place.
The journalist has been accused of being involved “in terrorist activities and could be sentenced to 15 years in prison, it was reported.