US Condemns Belarus Over Forced Landing, Detention of Journalist

The U.S. government strongly condemned the forced diversion of a Ryanair plane to Belarus on Sunday and the detention of an opposition journalist who was on board, and it called for a quick meeting of an international civil aviation group.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken demanded Roman Protasevich’s immediate release and said the “shocking act perpetrated by the Lukashenko regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens.”

Blinken said in a statement that the United States backs the “earliest possible meeting of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization to review these events.”

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