KYIV/BRUSSELS : Several airlines said on Monday they would avoid Belarusian air space after Belarus scrambled a warplane to intercept a Ryanair jetliner and arrest a dissident journalist in an act denounced by Western powers as “state piracy”.
The European Union was considering responding to Sunday’s incident by limiting international air traffic over Belarus and restricting its ground transport, and could tighten sanctions already in place on the former Soviet republic.
“This was effectively aviation piracy, state sponsored,” said Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, using language that was echoed by a number of other countries as EU leaders prepared to discuss a response at a summit in Brussels.
