25 May 2021, Tuesday, 17:36 191

Belarusian Foreign Ministry Protests Against Ukraine's Termination Of Flights With Belarus

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus protests against the termination of flights by Ukraine with Belarus.

Ukrainian News Agency learned this from a statement of the Embassy of Belarus in Ukraine.

"In connection with the unilaterally adopted decision by the Ukrainian side to terminate air traffic between Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus, the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus sent a note of protest to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry," the statement reads.

Belarus is surprised by this decision of Ukraine, since it was made because of an incident that has nothing to do with it.

The Foreign Ministry called the decision absurd, given that in 2016 Ukraine returned the Belavia aircraft to the Zhuliany airport (Kyiv) under the threat of the use of military aircraft.

“Despite the outrageous and unfriendly nature of Ukraine’s actions in relation to the Belarusian passenger airliner, the Belarusian side did not stop flights with Ukraine,” the statement reads.

The Foreign Ministry also noted that in 2020, 360,754 citizens of Ukraine and 301,688 citizens of Belarus entered Ukraine through Belarusian checkpoints, and 359,669 citizens of Ukraine and 308,427 citizens of Belarus left.

In January-May 2021, 46,177 citizens of Ukraine and 30,400 citizens of the Republic of Belarus entered Ukraine through Belarusian checkpoints, while 50,469 citizens of Ukraine and 32,136 citizens of the Republic of Belarus left.

It is also noted that in 2019, when there was no COVID-19 pandemic, Belavia airline paid the Ukrainian side USD 14 million for flights on regular flights in air traffic between countries and services at Ukrainian airports.

"Despite statements by Ukrainian officials about their interest in maintaining trade and economic relations between Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus, the decision to terminate flights with the Republic of Belarus, as well as the discriminatory decree of the President of Ukraine dated October 4, 2020 No. 420 on attracting highly qualified specialists and entrepreneurs of IT sphere to Ukraine from Belarus is another attempt at rough economic pressure," the statement says.

The Belarusian side expects that Ukraine's decision to terminate flights will be canceled in the near future.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on May 23, Belarusian air traffic controllers reported about the alleged mining of a Ryanair aircraft, which was en route from Athens (Greece) to Vilnius (Lithuania), so that it would be forced to land in Minsk, accompanying it with a MiG-29 combat aircraft of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

After landing in Belarus, law enforcers detained the founder of the opposition channel NEXTA in Telegram, Roman Protasevich, and his girlfriend.

Ukraine has decided to terminate air traffic with Belarus from May 26 and ban flights over its territory.

In October 2016, the Ukrainian authorities forcibly returned a Belavia flight from Kyiv to Minsk to the Zhuliany airport, while the airline said that the authorities had threatened to lift fighters into the air if this was not done, which the Security Service of Ukraine denied.

Then a citizen of Armenia Armen Martirosyan was removed from the flight, who was later released after interrogation.

The Belarusian authorities said that then President Petro Poroshenko apologized for the incident, and the airline was compensated.