Paris threatened with sanctions and the closure of the airspace of Belarus

Secretary of State for European Affairs of the French Foreign Ministry Clement Bon on the air of the BFMTV channel said that EU sanctions against Belarus could be expanded due to the incident with the Ryanair aircraft.

“This is a stunning and scandalous case. We are talking about a European aircraft, a European company, between two European capitals. <...> This is an act of state piracy that cannot go unpunished,” he said.

According to him, the European sanctions that put pressure on the Belarusian President ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, against the background of the incident with the plane, can be strengthened and spread to other officials of the republic. “This will be discussed tonight at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Europe,” Bon said.

The Secretary of State also said that another measure against the Belarusian authorities could be "closing the airspace of Belarus." “I think that this would be a reasonable measure for our protection, since the lives of European citizens were in danger,” he said, adding that among the passengers on the flight were nine French citizens and “many Europeans.”