The ban is expected to take effect on Saturday night.

No objections from individual Member States are expected, as the matter was already discussed at a summit with the Union's Heads of State and Government on 25 May.

The Council of Ministers was instructed to implement the decision, which must now have taken place.

In several EU countries, including Sweden, flight bans have already been introduced.

In Sweden, the Swedish Transport Agency stopped the airline Belavia just over a week ago.

The flight stoppage is a result of the recent imposition in Belarus of a Ryanair plane en route between Greece and Lithuania, when opposition activists Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega were forced off the plane.