09:29 26.05.2021

Ukraine stops flights to/from Belarus at 24:00 on May 26

2 min read
Ukraine stops flights to/from Belarus at 24:00 on May 26

Ukraine stops air traffic with Belarus from May 26, the corresponding decision was made at a government meeting on Tuesday.

"From 24:00 on May 26, Ukraine stops air communication with Belarus," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram channel.

The prime minister noted that the government instructed the Ministry of Infrastructure, the State Aviation Service and the State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE) to take the necessary measures for this.

In addition, Ukrainian airlines and aircraft will be prohibited from flying in the airspace of the Republic of Belarus.

The State Border Guard Service also received an order to stop the registration of passengers traveling from Belarus or to Belarus at the customs points of airports.

"The situation with the forced landing of Ryanair's aircraft in Minsk is a violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The decision of our government is aimed at ensuring the safety of flights and passengers," Shmyhal stressed.

Earlier on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Ukrainian government to prepare a decision on the termination of flights between Ukraine and Belarus in connection with the events that took place at the Minsk airport on May 23.

On May 23, the plane of the Irish airline Ryanair, en route from Athens to Vilnius through the airspace of Belarus, landed at the Minsk airport. The plane was landed under the pretext of a received bomb threat, which was later not confirmed. To accompany the passenger plane, a MiG-29 fighter was raised into the sky.

Editor of the telegram channel entitled "Belarus of the Brain," included in the list of extremist channels, former editor of the telegram channel NEXTA recognized as extremist in Belarus, Raman Pratasevich, and his friend, citizen of the Russian Federation, student of the Vilnius European Humanities University Sofia Sapega were onboard the plane. They both were detained by the Belarusian authorities.

According to ex-presidential candidate of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega is in the Minsk isolation ward in Okrestina detention facility.

The EU and the U.S. condemned the forced landing of the Ryanair liner in Minsk, demanding the release of Pratasevich.

They said in Minsk that the message about the mining of the plane of the Irish airline Raynair, which was flying from Athens to Vilnius, was signed by "Hamas soldiers."

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