Minsk-Sana
Belarus announced a ban on its airspace in front of Ukrainian aircraft in response to a similar step taken by the Ukrainian authorities at the end of last month.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was quoted by the Russian RIA Novosti news agency as saying: "Since Ukraine has closed its airspace to our planes, we, for our part, will refuse to receive Ukrainian planes in our airspace."
Ukraine suspended air traffic with Belarus and prevented Belarusian planes from using its airspace, citing an emergency landing of a civilian plane at Minsk Airport at the end of last May.
