European Union leaders have agreed on a set of sanctions against Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and .
Tensions have been on the rise between the EU and Belarus since a plane on its way to Lithuania was diverted to Minsk while flying over Belarusian airspace in May and an opposition journalist and his girlfriend on board were arrested..
The region between Belarus, Poland and Lithuania is one of Europe's most strategically sensitive.
Ryanair flight FR4978 was scheduled to operate today from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania.
Belarus has been accused of hijacking a European jetliner and engaging in an act of state terrorism when it forced a Ryanair flight to .
Our FR4978 flight has landed safely in Vilnius at 19 .
Belarus faced international condemnation and isolation Monday, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko sent a MiG-29 fighter jet to snatch a commercial plane out of the sky while it was flying .
Lithuania has announced it will build a barrier on the border with Belarus and deploy troops to prevent migrants from illegally crossing into its territory. .
May 28, 2021 13:21 GMT. This "state hijacking" set the lives of dozens civilians at risk and threatens to trigger a diplomatic incident between Lithuania and Belarus as well as with the NATO and the European Union.
On its landing, authorities took journalist Roman Protasevich into custody.
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the capital of Lithuania, when the plane was diverted to . 2. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defended Belarus' decision.
The EU has previously sent guards from the border .
Belarus sent a fighter jet to force flight FR4978 - which had departed from the Greek capital, Athens, and was bound for Lithuania - to land, claiming a bomb threat. The Lithuanian government is taking a range of measures against Belarus in the wake of the Belarusian President ordering a plane bound for the Lithuanian capital to land in Minsk instead. Key Points Belarus ordered its military to scramble a fighter jet to force a Lithuania-bound Ryanair plane to change course and land in its capital city, citing a potential security threat on.
Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. The Parliament of Lithuania extended the country's state of emergency in response to the ongoing EU border crisis with Belarus Tuesday, claiming that an ongoing "critical situation" regarding the influx of migrants from Belarus justified continued emergency operations.
Read more: Lithuanian leaders demand release of Ryanair flight passengers held in Minsk.
Our FR4978 flight has landed safely in Vilnius at 19 . Breaking news Belarus makes Athens bound plane land to arrest journalist.
"I'm facing the death penalty here," a trembling Protasevich. Belarus, which had security service officers posing as passengers on the flight, used a fake bomb threat and intervention by Belarusian air traffic control to force the RyanAir flight, en route from Greece to Lithuania, to land in Minsk so Protasevich could be detained.
On May 23, 2021, Belarus force landed a commercial plane that was flying from Athens in Greece to Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania at Minsk in Belarus. The plane was instead suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where authorities detained journalist Roman Protasevich who had been on board.
Protasevich, a 26-year-old activist and journalist based in Lithuania, was arrested after the plane he was traveling on was made to land in Minsk.
Lithuanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation Sunday into the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight en route to Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, to Minsk, Belarus, where police arrested prominent dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, the Lithuanian general prosecutor's office said.
The region between Belarus, Poland and Lithuania is one of Europe's most strategically sensitive.
Ryanair said in a statement the flight was informed of a "potential. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
Plane arrives in Vilnius Belarus scrambled a fighter jet to force the plane - bound for Lithuania - to land, claiming a bomb threat.
Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said. The potential charges include hijacking a plane for terrorism purposes and other violations of . The vast majority of the travelers have arrived in Belarus by plane, but airlines have been .
Lithuania says . Unprecedented event!
The plane, which was flying over Belarus from Athens to Vilnius, had almost reached Lithuania when it changed direction and was escorted to Minsk after it was reported that it had explosives on board, according to the Belarusian agency BelTA. Man charged .
He previously worked for Telegram channel NEXTA,.
The ruling of the Seimas, or Lithuanian parliament, extends the state of emergency to January 15.
In addition to the current flights from Bagdad to Minsk, three more cities will have direct connections with Belarus.
MOSCOW (AP) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Lithuanian authorities of dumping the bodies of migrants on the border between the two countries a claim rejected by A Lithuanian airport authority spokeswoman told Reuters the plane, scheduled to land in Vilnius at 1100 GMT, was diverted to Minsk due to a conflict between the crew and a passenger. The dramatic incident saw a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet escort a Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania.
In what was described by some EU leaders as a hijacking, the passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, escorted there by a Soviet-era. Belarus's forced landing of Lithuania-bound Ryanair plane sparks outrage.
The passenger plane flying from Greece to Lithuania on Sunday was forcibly diverted to Minsk Russia 18.26 GMT Lands in Vilnius 17.47 Takes off from Minsk Lithuania 10.16 Lands in Minsk 09.46.
Ryanair Flight 4978 was a regularly-scheduled international passenger flight from Athens International Airport, Greece, to Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, operated by the Polish subsidiary Buzz.On 23 May 2021, while in Belarusian airspace, it was diverted by the Belarusian government to Minsk National Airport where two of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his .
The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, carrying some 170 passengers among them the journalist, Roman Protasevich was flying over Belarus when Belarusian air traffic controllers. * Ryanair flight diverted on way from Greece to Lithuania.