Ryanair flight hijacked over Belarus, shocking ploy to catch regime critic. Among them was Roman Protasevich, a journalist and vocal critic of the authoritarian regime in Belarus. The flight path, as shown by FlightRadar24, suggests the plane was actually closer to Vilnius than Minsk when it changed course. The flight to Vilnius, Lithuania was snatched out of the sky after entering Belarussian airspace. This is a real outrage: https://t.co/dKFqKEenDJ — Susan Glasser (@sbg1) May 23, 2021The Belarusian President, Lukashenko, has been in office since 1994, and is sometimes referred to as "Europe's last dictator".

Source: New Zealand Herald May 23, 2021 22:08 UTC