The EU will expand sanctions against Belarus after the detention of NEXTA co-founder

The EU summit decided to expand economic sanctions against Belarus and blacklist new individuals and organizations, said the press service of German Chancellor Angela Merkel . The European Council demands the immediate release of NEXTA co-founder Roman Protasevich, who was detained in Minsk.

As noted in the message, European politicians were unanimous in their assessment of the incident with the Ryanair aircraft, on board of which there was an oppositionist.

Protasevich was detained on May 23. He flew from Athens to Vilnius, but during a flight over the territory of Belarus, a Ryanair aircraft was forcibly landed in Minsk under the pretext of a “mining report”. He was accompanied by a MiG-29 of the Belarusian Air Force. Information about the mining of the liner was not confirmed. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary called the forced landing of his airline's plane in Minsk "an act of state-paid piracy."

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After the “forced landing” of a Ryanair plane in Minsk, the European Union announced that it would close the sky for Belarusian airlines - Belavia would be banned from flying to EU countries, and European carriers were recommended to fly around the country. Also, Ukraine has suspended flights with Belarus. We talked about how the world reacts to the detention of the co-founder of NEXTA in Minsk here .