You're reading: Groysman: Ukrainian government to ‘do favor’ to Lukashenko by banning flights with Belarus

Leader of the Ukrainian Strategy of Groisman party Volodymyr Groysman believes that the Ukrainian government “will do a favor” to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko by banning flights with this country.

“I do not agree with the government’s intention to simply ban flights to Belarus. Lukashenko will applaud this decision, which will help him isolate himself and restrict the flow of people who go to Belarus. And many of them can help the Belarusian people in the struggle for freedom – by different opinions and explanations of the facts,” Groysman wrote on Facebook.

The politician says that an effective solution for Ukraine and the EU will be to ban flights in their airspace to all official government aircraft from Belarus. “This will leave the dictator in the country and will not do him favors, limiting the access of free pro-European people to Belarus,” Groysman says.

He also noted that Ukrainian planes should be prohibited to carry out transit flights through the airspace of Belarus, and only direct flights Kyiv-Minsk-Kyiv should be allowed.

As reported, Ukraine completely stops air traffic with the Republic of Belarus and redirects all flights bypassing its airspace.

On May 24, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Ukrainian government to prepare a decision on the termination of flights between Ukraine and Belarus in connection with the events that took place at the Minsk airport on May 23.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal is convening an extraordinary meeting of the government on Tuesday, May 25 to consider the issue of a complete cessation of air traffic with the Republic of Belarus.

As reported, on May 23, the plane of the Irish airline Ryanair, en route from Athens to Vilnius through the airspace of Belarus, was urgently landed at the Minsk airport.