OREANDA-NEWS. The procedure for approving sanctions against state-owned Belarusian airlines initiated in the European Union did not meet with objections, the deadline for submitting them ended at 14:00 Western European time on Friday, June 4. Thus, the punitive measures taken in response to the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk will come into force from 00:00 on Saturday, June 5.

The sanctions include a ban on the aircraft of «Belavia» and other Belarusian state-owned companies to cross the airspace of all 27 EU states and land at airports in the EU. In addition, European national air carriers are prohibited from flying to Belarus.

On May 23, the Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair airliner flying from Athens to Vilnius to land urgently in Minsk. The plane was grounded after a report about the mining of the aircraft turned out to be false. Two passengers were detained — Roman Protasevich and his companion, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega.

The participants of the EU summit in Brussels on May 24 agreed on sanctions related to Belarusian airlines. The EU Council called on European airlines to avoid flights over the territory of Belarus.

The G7 foreign ministers and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy condemned Protasevich's arrest. Former co-chairman of the German party «Union-90/Green», head of the parliamentary committee on transport and digital infrastructure Cem Özdemir took patronage of the blogger detained at the Minsk airport.