The European Union is asking airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace and is denying Belarusian airlines access to the EU. Following the hijacking of a Ryanair plane and the arrest of opponent Roman Protasevich, European leaders have imposed a whole series of new sanctions against Belarus. KLM, which flies six times a week from Amsterdam to Minsk, announced on Monday evening that it will stop flights to and over Belarus. On Tuesday, Air France and Finnair joined this, together with Singapore Airlines, which also announced that it would fly around Belarus for the time being.
state terrorism
An airplane from the Irish company Ryanair was forced to divert to the Belarusian capital Minsk on Sunday during a flight from the Greek capital Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania. After the landing, journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend were arrested. The EU wants to join forces with the US, Canada and the United Kingdom against Belarus. Calls for new EU sanctions against persons surrounding President Alexander Lukashenko's Belarusian regime are unanimous.
Earlier, the German airline group Lufthansa and the Dutch airline KLM announced that they would no longer fly over Belarus for the time being. KLM took the decision after an appeal from the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. According to the Prime Minister, the Belarusian authorities are currently "very unreliable" in the management of their airspace. Other airlines have already announced that they will avoid Belarusian airspace for the time being.
last dictator in Europe
After the Belarusian elections in 2020, there was a strong demonstration against Lukashenko, who has been in power in the former Soviet country since 1994 and has been called 'the last dictator of Europe'. Lukashenko had Protasevich placed on a list of wanted 'terrorists' in November.
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