Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, announced Russia’s decision not to investigate the incident with the forced landing of the flight of the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair at the Minsk airport.
Polyansky noted that this is an internal matter of Belarus and, as quoted by RIA Novosti, said:
“To say from the very beginning that this is a forced landing, to condemn it, to impose sanctions without any investigation is absolutely irresponsible.”
In addition, the diplomat does not consider the arguments of the United States and Europe to be weighty, which hastened to take punitive measures before all the circumstances of the incident were investigated.
As you know, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) will investigate the situation. In a statement, Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan notes that Dublin supports her decision to conduct a “transparent and independent investigation into the incident in Belarus.” Zbigniew Rau, the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, announced the composition of the international group – these are representatives of the states whose citizens were on the plane: Greece, Poland, Lithuania and others.
We will remind, unexpectedly changed course and urgently landed at the Minsk airport a Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS airliner flying from Athens to Vilnius. On board was Roman Protasevich, the former editor-in-chief of the Telegram channel recognized as extremist in Belarus.
The plane did not reach the Lithuanian border for several tens of kilometers, when, allegedly, the pilots informed the ground services about the bomb planted in the liner. The President of Belarus personally gave the order to send the plane for landing at the Minsk airport, although the flight to it was farther than to Vilnius. At the same time, a MiG-29 fighter flew into the sky to escort the Raynair plane to the airport.
The plane did not reach the Lithuanian border for several tens of kilometers, when, allegedly, the pilots informed the ground services about the bomb planted in the liner. The President of Belarus personally gave the order to send the plane for landing at the Minsk airport, although the flight to it was farther than to Vilnius. At the same time, a MiG-29 fighter flew into the sky to escort the Raynair plane to the airport.
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