European Flights Skirting Belarus As Leaders Mull Action On Hijacking

Maps from social media outlets tracking commercial flights has shown a number of planes from EU member states that would usually fly over the airspace of Belarus taking a more circuitous route, potentially in the wake of the 'hijacking' and forced landing of a Ryanair flight from Athens, Greece to Vilnius, Lithuania over the weekend.

• Opposition journalist Roman Protasevich was on the flight, and was forcibly removed once the plane had landed in Minsk, Belarus. Onboard the plane reports state that a number of Belarusian KGB officers were aboard the plane which was diverted to Minsk when in Belarusian airspace due to an alleged threat to the plane.
• Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said of the incident "This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking... state-sponsored piracy,"
• A special European Council summit is due to get underway at 1900CET (1300ET, 1800BST), with arrivals from 1730CET. The summit was initially intended to discuss COVID-19 responses, EU-UK relations, and how the EU should deal with Russia. However, the Ryanair incident has overtaken proceedings, with EU leaders expected to discuss appropriate responses to Belarus' actions.
• While the EU institutions and most member states have issued strongly-worded statements, a joint communique would require unanimity among member state leaders. There is concern at some levels that Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, whose relations with EU institutions are poor at best, may veto any particularly harsh statement or attempts to place stricter sanctions on the Lukashenko regime.