NEW YORK, October 2. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko slammed as ‘fantasies’ allegations that his country’s intelligence services orchestrated an emergency landing of the Ryanair passenger aircraft in late May.
"I have no intentions of confessing in anything to you as I am not under an investigation here, so please, choose your words carefully," the Belarusian president said in an interview with CNN as he was asked to admit that the Belarusian special services were behind an emergency landing of the Ryanair flight earlier in the year.
"It would have entailed a dear cost if such operation was conducted without violations of international laws or of certain instructions," Lukashenko continued. "This is why it is your fantasies only."
"If you are afraid of flying over our territory, I can personally guarantee you, your company and your country, as well as any other country, a complete safety of flights over Belarus just like it had always been," the Belarusian president said.
"However, if I personally and our law enforcement bodies see a possible national threat to the state of Belarus, we will force any aircraft to land here, be it from the Great Britain or from the United States. It [a plane] will be immediately forced to land in Belarus," Lukashenko said adding that any other country would resort to similar measures and his country was not an exception in this case.
On May 23, 2021, a Vilnius-bound Ryanair flight took off from Athens and was forced to make an emergency landing in the Belarusian capital of Minsk after a reported bomb threat. A Mikoyan MiG-29 jet was scrambled to escort the plane.
The bomb threat came up empty after the aircraft had landed. News later emerged that Roman Protasevich, wanted in Belarus as a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, which the Belarusian authorities recognized as an extremist entity, had been among the flight’s passengers.
He was detained by Belarusian law enforcement agents together with Russian national Sofia Sapega. Following the incident, the European Union barred Belarusian air companies from operating flights to EU airports and using the European Union’s airspace, and recommended that European air carriers should avoid Belarusian airspace.