EU locks out Belarus from international aviation
EU leaders have agreed a first wave of economic sanctions against Belarus over Sunday's (23 May) hijacking and said there were more to come.
The EU "calls on all EU-based carriers to avoid overflight of Belarus" and will "ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by such airlines", leaders said in a joint statement after meeting in Brussels on Monday.
They also promised "further targeted economic sanctions", without giving details, as well as "additional listings of persons and entities" linked to Belarus president Aleksander Lukashenko.
It comes on top of earlier EU listing of Lukashenko and over 60 of his cronies over his crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Leaders also demanded "the immediate release of Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega", a Belarusian opposition activist and his Russian girlfriend, who were snatched off a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday after a Lukashenko warplane forced it to land in Minsk.
And Belarus' story - that it forced the plane to land due to a bomb threat by Palestinian militant group Hamas - was "totally uncredible", she added.
