Ukraine to suspend flights to Belarus starting May 26

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced via Telegram on
May 25 that Ukraine would close air traffic with Belarus on May 26. Ukrainian
aircraft and airlines will be prohibited from operating in Belarusian airspace,
and passengers traveling directly to or from Belarusian airports will not be
able to cross into or out of Ukraine. Pravda.com.ua reports that passengers can
travel to or from Belarus via connecting flights from third countries.

James Hydzik: At this
point, Ukraine is working in step with the European Union. Since Minsk was a
connecting point for air travel between Russia and Ukraine, Baltic airlines
will actually gain from the disruption as they pick up the slack.

An appropriately harsh reaction on the part of the
West will need to go beyond flights, however, and it must come faster than the
MH-17 sanctions if only because the case is clearer immediately. Otherwise, as
many have pointed out, a basic tenet of air travel over foreign countries, that
of non-interference by the government on the ground, just collapsed. This is
not “state-sponsored terrorism”, because at this time, only states have MiG-29s
and A2A missiles. This was an act of state terrorism.