The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, spoke on the sidelines of the informal meeting of defence ministers held on Friday 28 May about problems encountered by planes of various airlines that were due to land in Moscow.
Several Air France flights and one Austrian Airlines flight have had to be cancelled since Wednesday since Moscow did not validate their flight plan.
“Air traffic was severely disrupted. But we still don’t know if this is about a case by case basis, specific cases, or the general norm for Russian authorities to make European planes fly over Belarus. We will have to wait and see before taking any measures”, said Borrell in Lisbon, where he was attending the meeting of EU defence ministers.
The Kremlin has said that technical reasons were behind these events. For its part, the Russian air authority, Rossaviatsia, has said the delays in validating flight plans bypassing Belarusian airspace is due to the increase in the number of requests. As for the EU, some fear that this is actually retaliation on Moscow’s part for the sanctions that Europeans will impose on Belarus (see EUROPE 12728/15). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)