Europe Threatens To Limit Belarus Air Traffic After Plane Forced To Land

A meeting of the 27 EU national leaders is scheduled in Brussels and Lithuanian Prime Minister said she would push with partners to close the airspace of Belarus to international flights.

European leaders threatened to limit international air traffic over Belarus and possibly target its ground transport as well, after a Ryanair plane was forced to land in an incident denounced by Western countries as "state piracy". Western leaders reached for the strongest language to condemn Sunday's incident, in which a Belarusian warplane intercepted a flight between Greece and Lithuania and forced it down in Minsk, where a dissident journalist was arrested. Countries called for the release of 26-year-old Roman Protasevich, whose social media feed from exile has been one of the last remaining independent outlets for news about the country since a mass crackdown on dissent last year. "This was effectively aviation piracy, state sponsored," said Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, using language that was echoed by a number of other countries. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said: "It is dangerous, reckless, and naturally the EU is going to act."