Belarus faces EU curbs after plane diversion

European Union leaders unanimously agreed in an emergency summit on Monday to punish Belarus for the interception of a Ryanair passenger jet and the arrest of a journalist and his girlfriend.

A statement after the meeting said the EU strongly condemns the forced landing of the flight in Minsk, Belarus, on May 23, endangering aviation safety, and the detention by Belarusian authorities of journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega.

EU also demanded the immediate release of the two people and called on the International Civil Aviation Organization to investigate the incident.

EU called on all EU-based carriers to avoid overflights of Belarus, and decided to adopt necessary measures to ban overflights of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by such airlines.

EU also vowed additional listings of persons and entities and further targeted economic sanctions. The extent of the EU action will not be known until details of the sanctions are worked out through legal proceedings.

"This is an attack on freedom of expression. And this is an attack on European sovereignty," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit of its 27 member states.

"And this outrageous behavior needs a stronger answer," she said.

The Ryanair flight FR4978 was flying from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sunday before it was diverted to Minsk.

Pratasevich, 26, is a founder of a messaging app channel in Belarus that has been described as a key information conduit for opponents to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

The Belarusian government has dismissed the EU's allegations. The Belarusian presidential press service said a bomb threat was received while the plane was over Belarusian territory. Officials later said no explosives were found onboard.

On Monday, Belarus claimed they had received a message from Palestinian militant group Hamas threatening to blow up a Lithuania-bound flight over Belarusian airspace unless the EU condemned Israel over the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Politicizing the incident

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry insisted the country's authorities acted "in full conformity with international rules" and accused Europe of politicizing the incident.

"We are struck by the haste with which some countries and European structures have made openly belligerent statements," spokesman Anatoly Glaz said.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said his country is ready to invite international experts to conduct a probe into the plane landing in Minsk.

"We are ready to invite experts of any international organizations, first of all, ICAO, IATA for an investigation. We are ready to host any experts, specialists to make an objective picture of what happened," he said.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it regrets Europe's plans to cut air links with Belarus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said Belarus was taking an "absolutely reasonable approach", while Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mocked the Western outrage.

"We are shocked that the West calls the incident in Belarusian airspace 'shocking'," she said on Facebook, accusing the West of "kidnapping, forced landings and illegal arrests".

Euronews contributed to the story.