Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko says his government adhered to international rules on Sunday when diverting and checking a Ryanair plane.
During that check, the Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich was removed from the device and arrested.
Lukashenko thinks the reaction in the West is excessive and untrue. He argues that his opponents in the West are going too far in their attempts to “strangle his country.” They “cross all red lines,” said the president.
According to him, they are making Belarus a training ground for an attack on Russia. He says it is a lie that a Belarusian fighter plane forced the Ryanair plane to land.
These were the first public statements by authoritarian Lukashenko on Sunday’s incident. According to Minsk, the Ryanair plane had to land for a security check because of a bomb threat from Switzerland. Protasevich was one of the passengers. He was unable to continue the journey and is still stuck in Belarus.
The passenger plane was not destined for Belarus but flew from Greece to Lithuania, both EU countries. The EU has reacted furiously to “the hijacking” of the device by the Lukashenko regime.