"Forcing a plane to land by a MiG-29 fighter is an absolute lie!", - said the president. He added that in the situation with this flight Belarus acted absolutely legally. "The task of the fighter is to provide communication and take out a passenger plane for landing in case of a critical situation", - Lukashenko said. The pilot had a choice of where to land the plane. He consulted with the owners of the plane and the airport in Vilnius, but decided to land the liner in Minsk.
The President also added that three people got off the plane in Minsk so as not to return later from Vilnius. They were mistaken for "fake KGB officers". Previously, this assumption was made by the CEO of Ryanair.
Lukashenko was also outraged by the fact that the plane had not yet landed in Minsk, when the same accusations and bans on flights were already raining down from the Western countries. "They reacted too quickly", - the president added. Lukashenko quotes Telegram channel "Pul Pervogo" ("Pool of the First").
Let us remind you that on Sunday, May 23, the plane flying from Athens to Vilnius urgently landed in Minsk. After the message about the mining of this liner, the MiG-29 fighter was raised into the sky. He escorted the plane to Minsk airport. On board Ryanair was Roman Protasevich, co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel. Earlier, a number of criminal cases were initiated against him for organizing rallies after the presidential elections in Belarus. He was put on the interstate wanted list. After the plane landed, he was detained.
After the incident, a bomb threat letter was published, allegedly received from the Palestinian group Hamas. The soldiers demanded that Western countries stop supporting Israel in this war. At the same time, Hamas said it was not involved in these threats.
Protest actions in Belarus have not stopped since August 2020. They were caused by the very controversial results of the presidential elections. The CEC announced the winner of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, but the opposition announced massive falsifications, demanded a recount, the release of political prisoners and the appointment of new democratic elections.
Opposition leaders were forced to leave the country, thousands of Belarusians received real sentences for participating in rallies.