Russians refuse Air France-KLM plane now that it no longer flies over Belarus | Interior

This is flight AF1154, which was to take off from Paris this morning at 10:20 a.m. and should have landed in the capital at 3 p.m. this afternoon. The French had to take a new route because they are no longer allowed to fly over Belarus due to European sanctions. Earlier this week, the regime forced a Ryanair plane to land in order to arrest a critical journalist. Russia has not approved this new route outside Belarus.

An Air France-KLM spokeswoman said the next Paris-Moscow flight is scheduled for Friday. The company hopes to be able to perform this flight as usual, but it is not yet clear.

Belarusians faced sanctions for the first time on Wednesday. An airliner of the national airline Belavia, en route between Minsk and Barcelona, ​​had to turn around. They were no longer welcome in French airspace, they were told by Polish air traffic control, where they were still allowed to fly until today. In the meantime, Poland has also announced that Belarusian planes are no longer welcome in their airspace.

Six of 15 Security Council countries are now calling for an investigation into the incident and the release of opposition blogger Protasevich, who allegedly flew from Greece to Lithuania but is now in a cell in his home country .

They call the Belarusian government’s decision to land a European passenger flight in Minsk as “a new and extremely dangerous phase in the Belarusian authorities’ campaign to oppress its own people”.

The declaration initiated by Estonia was signed by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway. The former members, Germany and Belgium, also denounce “the blatant attack on the safety of international civil aviation”.

There is no joint statement by the 15 members of the Security Council. An important blockade is Russia, a permanent member with veto power and ally of Belarus.