Contents tagged with Belarus
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Ukraine bans flights to and from Belarus
The Ukrainian government approved a decision during an extraordinary meeting to ban the use of Ukrainian airspace by aircraft registered in Belarus, reported the press service of the Ukrainian government.
The ban will come into effect on May 29, 12:00 am Kyiv time . According to the statement, this decision was made after the incident with the Ryanair fight, which occurred on May 23.
"In order to ensure the safety of flights and passengers, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the State Aviation …
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EU prepares to block import of Russian gas through Belarus
The European Union is preparing to tighten the currency stranglehold around Alexander Lukashenko’s neck, whose regime is already losing a key source of export earnings after NAFTAN refinery was put on the U.S. "blacklist".
The European sanctions against Belarus in response to the forced landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk may include measures against the transit of Russian gas through Belarus, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell.
The sanctions may be imposed on …
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Moscow refuses to allow European flights bypassing Belarus to enter Russia’s airspace
The Russian authorities seem to have come up with a response to air blockade of Belarus, which was introduced by the European Union after Lukashenko’s special operation to force the landing of the Ryanair flight in Minsk.
On Wednesday, Air France, Europe's third-largest airline by passenger traffic, was forced to reschedule an evening Paris-Moscow flight because it did not get a permission to enter Russian airspace.
The airline planned to fly around Belarus and requested permission to enter …
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Ukraine suspends electricity imports from Russia and Belarus
Ukraine has suspended imports of Russian and Belarusian electricity until October 1, 2021. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NKREKU).
The head of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission, Valery Tarasyuk, said that Energy Minister Herman Galuschenko initiated the decision. Thus, NKREKU cancels the results of annual auctions, which were used distributed transit volume for 2021 as part interstate agreements between …
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Merkel wants to question Putin about Russia's role in hijacking Ryanair plane over Belarus
German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that Russia's role in the story of the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and the subsequent arrest of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich remains unclear. "It is well known that there are close relations between Belarus and Russia," she said at a press conference following the EU summit on Tuesday, May 25. As an example, confirming Moscow's possible involvement, Merkel mentioned the fact that some passengers of the plane did not fly to Vilnius …
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Lukashenko threatens the West with Third World War
Foreign detractors are waging a hybrid war against Belarus, treating it as a testing ground before their "attack on the East", said self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, speaking in the Belarusian parliament.
According to him, the real goal of "Western strategists" is Russia, against which "one well-known extremist channel, which was born from Belarusian problems, is already actively working."
"We are on the front line of not just a cold but already an icy war," …
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EU expands sanctions against Belarus
EU countries have decided to expand economic sanctions against Belarus, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a two-day summit in Brussels.
The forced landing of a Ryanair flight to detain the founder and former chief executive of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, which the official Minsk initially attributed to Alexander Lukashenko's personal order and then tried to blame the alleged bomb threat from the Palestinian Hamas movement, is an "unacceptable violation of …
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U.S. and EU demand suspending all air traffic over Belarus
Lukashenko’s special operation to force the landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk using combat aviation risks turning into a tightening of Western sanctions against Belarus, including expulsion from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and ban on civil flights over its territory.
The operation, which resulted in the detention of Roman Protasevich, founder and former editor-in-chief of the Telegram channel NEXTA, is an act of "state terrorism," Manfred Weber, head of the European …
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Lukashenko diverts Ryanair flight, arrests opposition journalist
The founder of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, has been detained in Minsk. Protasevich was on board a Ryanair flight en route from Athens to Vilnius. The plane had to land at the national airport in Minsk after receiving a report that there was an explosive device on board.
On Lukashenko's order, a fighter jet was scrambled to escort the passenger plane with Protasevich on board, reports the pro-government Belarusian Telegram channel "Pool of the First." Lukashenko …
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Lukashenko urges Putin to save Belarusian ruble
The threat of a full-fledged currency crisis in Belarus forces the self-proclaimed President, Alexander Lukashenko, to make concessions on the key direction of integration with Russia, in which he has been holding defense for years. This is the ability to control and print his own national currency.
After the imposition of US sanctions, which cut off the Belarusian economy from a fifth of export revenues, Lukashenko began to cautiously hint at the need to help maintain the Belarusian ruble …