An icy war Lukashenko’s first public remarks about the Ryanair plane diversion, in a nutshell
In his first public remarks about the Ryanair flight that was forced to land in Minsk earlier this week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (Alyaksandr Lukashenka) said that the warning message about the alleged bomb planted on board the plane came from Switzerland, the state news agency BelTA reported. Speaking at a meeting with parliamentarians in Minsk on May 26, Lukashenko insisted that he acted “legally” and primarily focused on how Belarus’s “ill-wishers” are “attacking the state.” Here’s what he said, in a nutshell.
The message about the bomb on board the plane came from Switzerland. How should we have acted against the backdrop of a cascade of “bomb threats” from IP addresses in Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. We brought the information about the bomb threat to the attention of the crew, they had time to make a decision. Hamas or no Hamas, it doesn’t matter. Neither Vilnius, nor Warsaw, nor Kyiv, nor Lviv wanted to accept the flight. The plane turned around near the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (BelNPP), if there really had been a bomb, what would we have done? The fighter jet was sent up in keeping with all regulations. I thought about the safety of the country, I couldn’t allow the plane to fall on the heads of our people. There was a terrorist on the plane who was going to start a bloody rebellion and this was known far beyond the borders of Belarus. What country’s intelligence services did he and his accomplice work for? “They have moved from organizing riots to strangling tactics. They’re looking for new vulnerable spots, and they’re targeting not only us. We are a testing site for them before they move East.” I acted legally and will continue to do so. But carbon-copy accusations from the West began pouring in before the plane even had time to land. The goal is clear. We know who benefits from demonizing Belarus. We’ve found ourselves at the forefront of a new conflict, not a cold war, but an icy one. “Our ill-wishers from the outside and from within have changed their methods of attacking the state. They’ve crossed many red lines.” We have to do everything to prevent this from turning into a hot war. If you don’t like flying over Belarus, go fly where 300 people were killed.
This is a paraphrased summary of Alexander Lukashenko’s speech, based on reports from the Belarusian state news agency BelTA and ATN News. Phrases written in the first person aren’t necessarily verbatim quotes.
Read more about the incident
- ‘A case of state-sponsored hijacking’ Here’s what we know about the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and the arrest of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich
- ‘I’m proud of my son. He’s a hero’ Meduza speaks to the mother of jailed Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich
- Russian national Sofia Sapega remanded in custody in Belarus for two months
- Here are the airlines that now refuse to fly over Belarus
- Belarusian Transport Ministry publishes transcript of conversation between Ryanair pilot and Minsk dispatcher
Summary by Grigory Levchenko
Translated and edited by Eilish Hart
What?
Earlier, the Belarusian authorities claimed that they received a message from the Palestinian militant group Hamas threatening to blow up the Ryanair plane over Vilnius. Hamas later denied any knowledge of the message or connection to the incident.
Is this true?
As of yet there have been no reports about the Ryanair crew requesting to land in Warsaw, Kyiv, or Lviv, nor has there been any information about the Vilnius airport turning away the plane. The flight was en route from Athens to Vilnius and the pilot diverted to Minsk when they were very close to the Lithuanian border — in fact, the plane was closer to the Vilnius airport than the Minsk airport.
What terrorist?
Lukashenko was referring to opposition journalist Roman Protasevich (Raman Pratasevich), who was arrested after the Ryanair plane landed in Minsk. Protasevich is the former editor-in-chief of the opposition platform Nexta. The Belarusian authorities added him to a terrorism watchlist in November 2020. In Belarus, he’s facing charges of organizing riots, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Who?
In addition to detaining Roman Protasevich, the Belarusian authorities arrested his girlfriend, 23-year-old Sofia Sapega, who is a Russian citizen. On May 25, the Belarusian authorities remanded her in custody for two months on unspecified charges. According to unofficial reports, she also stands accused of organizing riots in Belarus.
The MH17 crash
Lukashenko was referring to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed (most of them were Dutch citizens). A Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (the JIT) later determined that a rocket fired from a Buk missile launcher belonging to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade in Kursk downed the plane. Moscow denies any involvement in the crash.