
THE European Union and the United States have been criticised for interfering in the internal affairs of Belarus, using the “unacceptable” grounding of a Ryanair plane to press for regime change.
EU leaders promised new sanctions on Belarus after a flight from Greece to Lithuania was grounded on Sunday and passenger Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition journalist, was arrested.
Officials in Minsk claimed that they were responding to a bomb threat when they scrambled fighter jets, forcing Ryanair flight FR4978 to land in the Belarusian capital.