Belavia cancels flights to eight countries including Poland

The European Union has urged its airlines to avoid Belarus and its airspace amid outrage over Sunday's forced landing in Minsk of a Ryanair jet en route to Lithuania from Greece and the arrest of a dissident journalist on board.

As a result, Belavia said it was cancelling its flights to Warsaw, Milan, Rome, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hanover, Vienna, Brussels, Barcelona, and Kaliningrad until October 30.

"We regret that our passengers have to face this situation for reasons beyond the airline's control and we promise to do all we can to resolve it," Belavia said in a statement.

Belavia has previously said it has been banned from flying to Lithuania, Latvia, France, Sweden, Britain, Finland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

A Belavia plane flying from Minsk to Barcelona on Wednesday turned back after Poland said it may not be able to enter French airspace.

"The Council of Ministers has adopted a ban on the entry into Polish airspace of aircraft used by carriers from Belarus," spokesperson for the Polish government Piotr Muller wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Air France later cancelled a flight from Paris to Moscow after Russia failed to approve a route bypassing Belarus.

Ireland will call on the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization to conduct an impartial probe into the "forced landing" of a Ryanair jet in Minsk at a meeting of the council later on Thursday, its transport minister said.

"What we'll be looking for is an investigation under Article 55e of the Convention of the Council (ICAO) and my understanding is that this would be the first such investigation," Eamon Ryan said, speaking after a meeting of ministers at the OCED's International Transport Forum, some of which agreed to condemn the "coercive, forced landing."

Article 55e gives the council the power to "investigate, at the request of any contracting state, any situation which may appear to present avoidable obstacles to the development of international air navigation."

Ryan said he would expect such an investigation to be turned around by approximately the end of June.

"We need a full probe, a thorough investigation," he said. Ryan is to attend an urgent meeting of ICAO's 36-member council, later on Thursday at a meeting that will also include government ministers from Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. Ryan will attend the meeting because Ryanair is registered in Ireland. 

European Union sanctions on Belarus will likely hit the country's potash and oil sectors, as well as financial transactions, foreign ministers from Germany, Luxembourg and Lithuania said on Thursday.

"The hijacking of the plane and the detention of the two passengers is completely unacceptable, and we will start discussing implementation of the sectorial and economic sanctions," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters before the informal meeting in Lisbon.

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said potash should be central to any new sanctions meant to pressure Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who the opposition and the West say rigged presidential elections last August.

"The keyword, I think, is potash. We know that Belarus produces very much potash, it is one of the biggest suppliers globally, and I think it would hurt Lukashenko very much if we managed something in this area," Asselborn said.

Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said: "We aim to target the economic structure and financial transactions in Belarus significantly."

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the EU should consider hitting the oil sector with sanctions.

Ministers are aiming for agreement on June 21, when they meet in Luxembourg, and before the next meeting of EU leaders.