Belarus accuses France of “air piracy” after turning aircraft over

The Belarusian government has accused French authorities of “air piracy” after a Belarusian passenger plane got in the way. Barcelona The European Union had to turn back before entering airspace. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Minsk, Anatoly Glass, said French aviation officials prohibited the Belarusian machine from flying through French airspace. It is “absolutely monstrous and immoral”.

According to state-owned Belarusian airline Belavia, French authorities had banned entry into French airspace on an aircraft with 56 passengers, in reference to an instruction from the French Prime Minister. So Flight B249 had to fly around the Polish border for about two hours before the machine returned to Minsk. Loops can be seen on the portal »Flightradar« on Wednesday afternoons.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, most of the passengers aboard the Belavia aircraft were EU citizens. Ministry spokesman Glass said that his safety was threatened by the flight ban of French officials.

The Polish authorities announced that they had refused the Belarusian aircraft due to the French flight ban. However, another aircraft from Minsk was allowed to enter Warsaw Earth. The Polish government later announced that it had closed the airspace for Belarusian planes, which was decided at the EU summit on Monday.

French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Jebbari on Monday Posted on twitterThat Belavia’s permission to fly into French airspace would be suspended.

After the forced landing of a passenger aircraft in Minsk and the arrest of Critic of the government Roman Protasevitsch European Union countries were at the meeting Brussels A comprehensive package of sanctions against Belarus On th eway. Among other things, EU airspace and airports are to be closed to Belarusian airlines. EU airlines should no longer fly over the country. According to the information, it was still open when in fact the airspace should be completely closed.

UN Security Council members condemned forcible landing

Several current and former members of the UN Security Council condemned the landing of the RyanAir aircraft with more than 1000 passengers in Minsk, which was forced by Belarus. This means that we are in “a new and extremely dangerous phase of the campaign by Belarusian authorities to persecute their own people”. In a message Estonia’s United Nations Mission, which is run by Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Great britain And this America Was supported.

France, Great Britain and the USA are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Estonia, Ireland and Norway are current members, Belgium and Germany are former members. Together they demanded that the incident be clarified and Protasevich released. A joint declaration of all 15 members of the United Nations’ most powerful body failed, among other things, due to Russia’s resistance.