VILNIUS, May 27. /TASS/. Lithuania barred Belarusian airlines and all carriers, licensed by Minsk, from entering the Baltic state’s airspace on Thursday.

According Lithuania’s Minister of Transportation Marius Skuodis, EU members decided that European airspace must be closed to Belarusian airlines. Vilnius carried out this decision in practice immediately, the country’s transportation chief said.

On Tuesday, the Baltic republic also contacted the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), requesting to declare Belarusian airspace unsafe. The same day, Vilnius imposed a ban on the arrival and departure of planes, whose flight routes crossed Belarusian airspace.

These steps were taken after the May 23 Ryanair plane incident, when an Athens-Vilnius flight had to make an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport over a bomb threat. A Mikoyan MiG-29 jet was scrambled to escort the airliner. The bomb threat came up empty after the aircraft had been inspected and no explosives were found. The Investigative Committee of Belarus opened a criminal case over an intentionally false bomb threat.

Later, Minsk disclosed that on board the plane was Nexta Telegram channel (deemed extremist in Belarus) co-founder Roman Protasevich, who was detained by Belarusian national security. Vilnius viewed the incident as an intelligence operation carried out in order to capture the blogger, and declared it an act of state terrorism. Lithuanian law enforcement has opened a criminal case over charges of air piracy.