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According to a plan approved by COREPER, sanctions will be imposed on the Belarusian national airline Belavia and other airlines in the country. Its planes will be banned from crossing EU airspace and landing at EU airports. EU national airlines cannot operate flights to Belarus.
The EU must now complete the written approval process for these measures. This is expected to be done soon as objections to the proposed package are unlikely.
The decision will take effect on Saturday at 1pm Lithuanian time.
Earlier, the Bloomberg news agency quoted anonymous sources as saying that EU diplomats should approve a ban on Belarusian airlines from using EU airspace on Friday. The sources said the measures, if approved, could take effect from Friday night through Saturday.
Furthermore, the EU intends to consider new sanctions on Belarus next week, which could be targeted by ministers and representatives of the leaders of the Belarusian Air Force. Sanctions can also be imposed on an organization, but it is not specified how specific.
Belarusian authoritarian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenko ordered on May 23 to send a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius, which was flown by opposition blogger Raman Pratasevic and his friend, Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen studying in Vilnius. When the plane landed in Minsk, they were both detained.
As a result of the liner’s forced landing, the European Union states closed their airspace to Belarusian planes and asked the airlines to stop flying over the country.
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