Plane intercepted: Ukraine cuts off air relations with Belarus

A man carrying the former white-red-white flag of Belarus shouts slogans as members of the Belarusian diaspora in Ukraine demonstrate outside the Foreign Ministry in Kiev on May 23, 2021 to call on the Ukrainian government to act on the release of Roman Protassevich.

AFP - SERGEI SUPINSKY

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The case of the hijacking in Minsk of the Ryanair flight, Athens-Vilnius and the arrest of Belarusian journalist Roman Protassevich never ceased to make waves.

After a new somewhat strange bomb threat, this Monday, at Minsk airport in a Lufthansa plane which was going to fly to Frankfurt, Lithuania, then Ukraine, took retaliatory measures against the Belarus.

The Vilnius government has decided to ban the arrival of any plane that has flown over Belarusian territory, Ukraine, for its part has decided to stop direct flights with Belarus.

Ultimately, it is the transport map between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine that will be changed.

But also the human geography of these countries which 30 years ago were only one.  

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

Stéphane Siohan

Following a meeting with advisers and several ministers, this Monday, May 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky decided to end direct flights between Ukraine and Belarus, and to ban aircraft registered in Ukraine from overflying Belarusian territory. 

The move comes seven years after Ukraine already cut direct air links with Russia, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, after Russia annexed Crimea.

However, since 2014, Minsk airport had become a major regional hub, to which the local authorities were very keen.

To get from Russia to Ukraine, it was therefore necessary to go through the Belarusian capital, which has become an essential stopover in post-Soviet countries. 

Likewise, many Ukrainians used the connection from Minsk to travel to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and even Europe, at a good price. 

Other airports could take over, Chisinau in Moldova, Riga in Latvia, but if this interruption of flights were to continue, 30 years after the end of the USSR, it would be territories that were once closely linked, which would continue to grow. move away from each other. 

Read also :

Belarus: Roman Protassevich, an arrest that shakes Europe

Ryanair flight intercepted: "It's a sign of great excitement" from Belarus

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  • Ukraine

  • Belarus

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  • Transport

  • Volodymyr Zelensky