Belarusian President Denies Forcing Airliner To Land

The Associated Press reports:

Belarus’ authoritarian president defended Wednesday his decision to tell a passenger jet to land in his country and accused European leaders of waging a “hybrid war” to “strangle” his nation by ordering up new sanctions for diverting the flight and arresting an opposition journalist who was aboard.

Speaking before lawmakers and top officials, President Alexander Lukashenko maintained his contention that there was a bomb threat against the Ryanair flight and called it an “absolute lie” that a fighter jet he scrambled was forcing the passenger plane to land in Minsk. The carrier has said its crew was instructed to land.

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Belarusian leader defends diversion of flight that drew furyhttps://t.co/Cx9iS060Rn pic.twitter.com/21w9f2qEkg

— CP24 (@CP24) May 26, 2021

Authorities in Belarus have released a second confessional video showing the girlfriend of opposition journalist Roman Protasevich pic.twitter.com/cZSwg07I8Y

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 26, 2021