Hijacked plane, the Farnesina summons the Ambassador of Belarus

• The Ryanair plane "hijacked" in Belarus.

  The EU convenes the ambassador of Minsk

• Lufthansa plane blocked for "terrorist threat" took off from Minsk

• Belarus hijacks Ryanair flight to arrest exiled dissident

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May 24, 2021 The hijacked plane forced to land in Minsk continues to upset world diplomacy, even reaching today's European Council.

Now it is the Farnesina to convene the Belarusian ambassador in Rome to express Italy's strong condemnation of the affair. And London has also summoned its Ambassador from the country led by President Lukašėnka, to protest against the hijacking of the Ryanair flight, with an opponent on board, who was then arrested upon landing.

On the recommendation of the Foreign Minister

, it was Undersecretary

 to convene today the charge d'affaires of the Republic of Belarus in relation to the "very serious episode of the hijacking of the Athens-Vilnius commercial flight, which involved the temporary kidnapping of the

" of the flight first escorted and then hijacked by a fighter Belarusian officially for security reasons due to a suspected bomb on board the aircraft. Once on the ground, however, the agents arrested 

, an opponent already on the lists of the regime led by Lukašėnko.

The undersecretary expressed "the clearest condemnation of an inadmissible act, which constitutes a very serious violation of international rules on aviation safety and which Belarus will be called upon to answer. In this regard, Italy has already begun to discuss together with partners at today's meeting of

the adoption of response measures proportionate to the gravity of the incident. Similar initiatives are being undertaken in multilateral fora ". Della Vedova asked for the "immediate release" of Roman Protasevich and his partner.

All this while

takes an even clearer position by giving orders to British airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace and by suspending Belavia flights. British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said he had "instructed" the civil aviation authority to "ask airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace for passenger safety". "I have also suspended the authorization to operate the Belavia," he added on Twitter, referring to the Belarusian flag carrier. It is the first European country to make this move.

Immediately followed by Ukraine where President

takes the same precautions, instructing his government to prepare a decree on the termination of air links between

. "The president has instructed the government to draft a decree to terminate direct air links between Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus and to close Belarusian airspace for flights from Ukraine and to our country", reads the internal statement. . 

A real "Cold War episode" that happened yesterday in the skies of Europe, something "horrible" and "unacceptable for such a thing to happen today", declared the vice president of the European Commission,

, before joining the pre-summit of the European Socialist Party. "There must be a strong response from the EU," he added,  while the President of the European Council

he already speaks of "sanctions on the way" and "international scandal". The decision tonight at the summit of European leaders. 

And even the Commissioner for Economic Affairs 

entering the pre-summit of the PSE in Brussels, says he is "convinced that the summit also serves to give an answer to what happened yesterday, which is unprecedented. It is a shameful and incredible fact to to which the European Union must give an answer ". When asked what kind of response the EU should give, Gentiloni replied: "It must be the maximum possible response, because a precedent of this kind cannot be established".