FILE PHOTO: A Ryanair aircraft, which was carrying Belarusian opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich and diverted to Belarus, where authorities detained him, lands at Vilnius Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania May 23, 2021. REUTERS/Andrius Sytas
(Reuters) - European Union leaders have called for Belarusian airlines to be banned from the 27-nation bloc's airspace and urged EU-based carriers to avoid flying over the former Soviet republic.
The decision came after Belarus forced a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk on a Greece-Lithuania flight on Sunday and detained a dissident journalist on arrival.
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