EU mulls shunning Belarusian airspace over forced landing
The Hindu
Leaders to hold summit, may tighten sanctions on Minsk
The European Union is considering shunning Belarus’s airspace and banning national carrier Belavia from EU airports after Belarusian authorities scrambled a warplane and forced a Ryanair jetliner to land in Minsk. Western leaders reached for the strongest language to condemn Sunday’s incident, in which a Belarusian warplane intercepted a flight between Greece and Lithuania and forced it down in Minsk, where a dissident journalist was arrested. Countries have called for the release of 26-year-old Roman Protasevich. EU leaders will discuss tightening sanctions already in place against Minsk at a summit on Monday evening, and could also restrict ground transit links between Belarus and the bloc.
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