Biden blasts Belarus plane diversion as US vows to hold regime ‘to account’

President Biden has directed his team to draft up potential measures to respond to Belarus’ forced landing of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist, he revealed in a new statement — calling the action an “outrageous incident.”

The statement, released Monday evening, came in response to growing international outrage over the diversion of a Ryanair flight to arrest Raman Pratasevich, an opposition figure in Belarus and a passenger on board, in what Biden called “a direct affront to international norms.” “I join the many calls for an international investigation to ascertain the complete facts of the case,” the commander-in-chief stated.