MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2021) EU leaders, during a summit in Brussels, condemned the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, called for an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) probe into the incident, and urged for tougher sanctions and bans on Belarusian carriers' flights in the EU, according to the summit's conclusions published on Twitter by European Council President Charles Michel's spokesman Barend Leyts.
"The European Council strongly condemns the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, Belarus, on 23 May 2021 endangering aviation safety, and the detention by Belarusian authorities of journalist Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega," the document says.
The summit's participants also demand the immediate release of Protasevich and Sapega and call on the ICAO to probe the "unprecedented and unacceptable" incident, it says.
They also called to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian aircraft and their access to EU airports, it says.
"[The European Council] calls on the Council [of the EU] to adopt further targeted economic sanctions," it says.
