UK planes told to avoid Belarus airspace as more sanctions mooted after ‘hijack’

The Ryanair plane with registration number SP-RSM, carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich which was traveling from Athens to Vilnius and was diverted to Minsk after a bomb threat, lands at the International Airport outside Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, May 23, 2021. The presidential press service said President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the Ryanair plane carrying opposition figure Raman Pratasevich and traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania to the airport in the capital Minsk. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

UK aircraft have been instructed to avoid Belarusian airspace following the “state-sponsored hijack” of a Ryanair flight to enable the arrest of a prominent critic of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said further sanctions were being considered against the Lukashenko administration and Belarus’ ambassador in London had been summoned for a dressing down.