Thread by @Telegraph

🚨 BREAKING: Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, has said he believes there were Belarusian KGB agents on board the flight forced to land in Minsk by a Belarusian military aircraft

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/2…

🗣️"It appears the intent of the authorities was to remove a journalist and his travelling companion," said the Ryanair chief

"We believe there were some (Belarusian security agency) KGB agents offloaded at the airport as well"

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/2…

✈️ The Ryanair flight was flying between Athens and Vilnius, two EU capitals, and carried more than 100 passengers before it was forced to land in what Brussels called a “coercive act”.

AirBaltic has become the first airline to stop flights over Belarusian airspace

🇱🇹The Lithuanian foreign ministry claimed that there were four Belarusians and three Russians onboard the plane.

Mr Protasevich is Belarusian and his girlfriend, Sophia Sapega, who is reportedly also detained, is Russian, meaning there are two Russian nationals unaccounted for

🇪🇺Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said those responsible for the “Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned”.

“The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences,” she said.

Read more 👇telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/2…

🗣️Dominic Raab said: “The UK condemns yesterday’s actions by the Belarusian authorities, who arrested journalist Roman Protasevich on the basis of a ruse... Mr Lukashenko must be held to account for his outlandish actions"

Read more: telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/2…

"To get the attention of authoritarian regimes like Lukashenko’s, let alone influence them, we need to be more imaginative, taking our lead from that regime’s specific weaknesses" | Writes @MarkGaleotti

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/2…

"They took the boy aside and shook his belongings on the runway. We asked him what was going on. He said 'the death penalty awaits me here'"

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/2…