Russian, Belarusian Transport Ministries Instructed To Organize Cooperation - Kremlin

The Transport Ministries of Russia and Belarus were instructed to organize interaction in the wake of the holiday period and the issue of returning Belarusians from European countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2021) The Transport Ministries of Russia and Belarus were instructed to organize interaction in the wake of the holiday period and the issue of returning Belarusians from European countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko held talks in Sochi.

"The issues of air traffic management were discussed. Taking into account the decision of the European authorities, many airlines that have stopped flying through the airspace [of Belarus], taking into account the fact that Belavia [Belarusian airline] is no longer a welcome guest in European cities, the transport ministries of the two countries- Russia and Belarus - have been instructed to organize aspects of air communication, including taking into account the upcoming holiday period and the large number of Belarusian citizens who want to come to the Black Sea coast of Russia, and so on," Peskov told reporters.

He added that the order to the ministries came amid the need to return "a large number" of Belarusian citizens, who are currently in the European countries, to their homeland.

Peskov also said that the leaders have not exchanged opinions on possible flights operated by the Belavia air carrier to Crimea.

"It is better to ask Belavia about this. This is not a Russian company," the spokesman responded when asked about the matter.

European leaders agreed to ban Belarusian airlines from entering EU air space and recommended that the bloc's airlines refrain from flying over the Eastern European country in the wake of the Ryanair incident, which occurred last week when the plane was grounded in Minsk over a bomb threat which later turned out to have been false. During the stopover, Roman Protasevich, one of the founders of Telegram channel Nexta, which was active during last year's post-election protests, was detained along with Russian national Sofia Sapega.