Minsk

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

The European Council has proposed an air traffic ban on Belarus amid outrage over the arrest of opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, after a Ryanair flight he was travelling on was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk.

The ban will prevent Belarusian airlines from flying in the airspace of the 27 EU member states and prevent them from landing at airports in the EU. 

Belarusian Transport Ministry announced that Hamas was behind the bomb threat that allegedly forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk on May 23, reports the Belarusian news.

Ljubljana – Senior Slovenian officials have condemned actions by Belarus after a Rynair flight was forced to land in Minsk. Prime Minister Janez Janša voiced support for sanctions, while President Borut Pahor and the Foreign Ministry called for an independent investigation.

Reuters reported that the “27” would also agree to impose sanctions on Minsk

Upon request by High Representative Josep Borrell, the Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, Stefano Sannino, summoned the Belarus Ambassador to the EU, Aleksandr Mikhnevich, to condemn the inadmissible step of the Belarusian authorities, who forced a civilian plane to perform an emergency landing in Minsk and detained its passenger Raman Pratasevich, an independent Belarus