President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has said that the republic will not accept Ukrainian planes in response to Kiev’s decision to restrict flights of Belarusian aircraft over Ukraine
It was reported by RIA Novosti.
“Since Ukraine has closed the overflight to us, we will not simply accept aircraft from Ukraine”, – Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the Telegram channel Pool One.
Recall that the Ukrainian authorities have stopped air links with Minsk since May 26 in connection with the incident with the emergency landing of the Ryanair airline plane after a report of a bombing, which turned out to be false. Roman Protasevich, one of the founders of NEXTA, a Telegram channel recognized as extremist in Belarus, was on board the aircraft and is currently detained.
Europe claimed that Belarus had forced the Ryanair airline to land in Minsk under false pretences and imposed a ban on the use of the EU airspace by Belarusian aircraft.
As News Front reported earlier, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged to separate issues of politics and aviation security. Besides, Belarus intends to appeal to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) because of restrictions on flights.