Vilnius City Hall replaced the State Flag of Belarus to the opposition white-red-white because of the incident with the emergency landing of the Ryanair aircraft at Minsk airport, reports Rubaltic portal.
As explained the situation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, thus the authorities of the city decided to support the actions of Riga, which had previously arrived in the same way, causing outrage of the Belarusian authorities.
In turn, the mayor of the Lithuanian capital Remigius Shimashaus said that his gesture, the city administration expressed its attitude to the persecution of disagreements with President Alexander Lukashenko and his administration. “This is the attitude of the city and the mayor to events in Belarus, when the plane made a forced landing, and in principle the terrorist attack was performed,” said the Grador.
On May 23, the airline Ryanair airlines, following the route Athens – Vilnius, made an emergency landing after reports of mining arrived from Minsk airport. To accompany the aircraft, the Fighter MiG-29 of the Air Force of Belarus was raised. After landing, Belarusian security forces detained on board the creator of the opposition telegram channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich.
In Belarus, he is accused of creating extremist formation and calls to mass riots after the presidential elections in August 2020. He may threate up to 15 years in prison. Information about the blasting device on board was not confirmed. Later, the Belarusian side stated that information on mining came on behalf of the Palestinian movement Hamas.
One of the symbols of protests in Belarus is a white-red and white banner (Bel. “Bel-Chyrvona-Bella Citguod”, BCB). In 1991-1995, it was the state flag of the republic. At the 1995 referendum, most Belarusians voted to replace him with a red-green, resembling the flag of the Belarusian SSR. Lukashenko, who accepted in the 1994th presidential oath under the white-red and white flag, believes that it is directly related to the Nazis.