Minsk

The Belarusian leader said "ill-wishers" are "trying to strangle Belarus" in his first speech since a commercial flight was intercepted and a critical blogger arrested.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko hit out at Western powers on Wednesday, saying that his country's "ill-wishers" are "trying to strangle Belarus."

Namely, Sofia Sapega, otherwise a Russian citizen, was arrested when Protashevic was arrested, when the plane on the flight Athens-Vilnius was redirected to Minsk, where they were both detained.

Despite the speculations about a Russian involvement in the forced landing of the Ryanair airliner in Minsk, given the importance of Russia, EU leaders who met in Brussels for a two-day summit decided to decouple the issues and concentrate on sanctioning Belarus.

In addition to reporting on Belarusian security forces' violent crackdown against peaceful demonstrators, Nexta had provided daily instructions on when, where, and how Belarusians should mobilize during last fall's countrywide mass protests against Lukashenko's bogus election victory. Its Sunday calls for a National March for Freedom brought as many as 200,000 people into the streets of Minsk.

Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was arrested on Sunday after Belarusian authorities diverted Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius of a possible bomb threat and forced it to land at an airport near Minsk.

Fears are growing that the Belarusian journalist who is well-known critic of President Lukashenko, has been subject to torture while in custody.

Restoring trust and stepping up bilateral dialogue with the Republic of North Macedonia feature among the priorities, outlined by caretaker Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev at a news conference here on Tuesday. 

There is growing international outrage against Belarus for what's being described as the 'hijacking' of a passenger plane carrying an opposition activist. The RyanAir flight from Athens was diverted and forced to land in Minsk, where Roman Protasevich was detained.

The diversion by Belarus of a Ryanair flight to a forced landing in Minsk was air piracy, Bulgaria's caretaker Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev said on May 25.

EU leaders completely rewrote the agenda of their summit discussions on Monday after learning with dismay that Belarus had forced a passenger plane carrying a wanted journalist to divert and land in its capital.

They called on the Council to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access of their planes to EU airports