26 May 2021, Wednesday, 19:07 142

State Border Service Not To Close Land Border With Belarus, This Is Prerogative Of Cabinet – Speaker of Authority

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The State Border Guard Service does not plan to prohibit or restrict entry/exit at the border with Belarus, since the relevant decision must be made by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The speaker of the State Border Guard Service, Andrii Demchenko, announced this to Ukrainian News Agency.

"This is the prerogative of the Cabinet of Ministers, not the State Border Guard Service," he said.

According to him, such a decision can only be made by the government, and the State Border Guard Service will fulfill it.

“This decision is made by the government, we are implementing it. So far I have not heard about any additional restrictions that can be applied on the border with Belarus,” Demchenko said.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the State Border Guard Service states that the passenger traffic by land transport on the border with Belarus in 2020 amounted to 1.8 million people for entry and exit.

Ukraine has terminated flights with Belarus from May 26.

On May 23, Belarusian air traffic controllers reported about the mining of a Ryanair airplane, which was en route from Athens (Greece) to Vilnius (Lithuania), so that it had to land in Minsk.

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

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that it was absolutely unacceptable to force the Athens-Vilnius flight to land in Minsk, and any violation of the rules of international transport should have consequences.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demanded the release of the detained Belarusian opposition leader and journalist Roman Protasevich.

The inter-factional association of the Verkhovna Rada For Democratic Belarus called for the termination of diplomatic ties with Belarus in connection with the arrest of Protasevich.