Foreign Ministry: Ukraine demands immediate release of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich

Published May 24, 2021 at 11:05 am

A photo taken on May 23, 2021, shows a Boeing 737-8AS Ryanair passenger plane (flight FR4978, SP-RSM) from Athens, Greece, that was intercepted and diverted to Minsk on the same day by Belarus authorities, landing at Vilnius International Airport, its initial destination.

Photo by AFP

Ukraine demands the immediate release of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich, and considers his detention in Minsk an attack on freedom of speech by the Belarusian authorities, said Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

“More worrying news coming from Belarus as we learned Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich has been detained in Minsk. This is yet another attack on freedom of expression by Belarusian authorities. We demand his immediate release. While in detention, his rights must be upheld,” Nikolenko wrote on Twitter on May 23 evening.