“Act of State Terrorism”. First reaction of EU leaders to capture of NEXTA founder

European leaders called the forced landing of the Ryanair plane at the Minsk airport and the detention of the speaker Lukashenko by the security officials of the founder of the Telegram channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich an act of state terrorism and announced the threat to international aviation from the Belarusian regime. President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda and leader of the European People’s Party, ex-head of the European Council Donald Tusk made relevant statements.

“I demand that the Belarusian regime immediately release the detainee and allow him to continue on to Vilnius. I call on NATO and EU allies to immediately respond to the threat posed by the Belarusian regime to international civil aviation,” Nauseda wrote on Facebook.

He said the international community must take urgent action to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

“I will talk about this tomorrow at the European Council in Brussels,” the President of Lithuania said.

According to Tusk, Lukashenka has become a threat not only to his citizens, but also to international security.

“His act of state terrorism requires an immediate and tough response from all European governments and institutions,” said the leader of the European People’s Party.

• Earlier today, on May 23, a Ryanair plane on the Athens-Vilnius flight was urgently landed in Belarus, allegedly due to a message about mining. The founder of the largest Belarusian opposition Telegram channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich, who was on board, was detained.
• The leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called the detention of Protasevich an operation of Lukashenka’s special services.