THE Tory Transport Secretary has told the UK's independent aviation regulator to instruct planes to avoid Belarusian airspace following the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight on May 23.

Grant Shapps also said that he has suspended the operating permit of Belavia, the flag carrier and national airline of Belarus.

The Transport Secretary tweeted: “Following the forced diversion of a @Ryanair aircraft to Minsk yesterday, I’ve instructed [the UK Civil Aviation Authority] to request airlines avoid Belarusian airspace in order to keep passengers safe.

“I have also suspended Belavia’s operating permit.”

Shapps’s moves come after Alexander Lukashenko, the nation’s president often referred to as “Europe's last dictator”, personally ordered a Ryanair flight bound for Lithuania to land in Minsk.

READ MORE: Belarus regime 'forces Ryanair plane to land to arrest opposition journalist'

While reports from the Belarusian state media said that there had been a bomb on board, necessitating the scrambling of a Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the plane, no explosive device was found.

Instead, after the forced landing, a young journalist known as an outspoken critic of Lukashenko’s regime was detained.

His girlfriend was also taken off the plane, with Ryanair saying they believed that secret service agents also offloaded in Minsk.

Pratasevich’s arrest has been condemned across the world, with critics calling it piracy, a hijacking and terrorism.

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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (above) said that all flights from the UK to Belarus would be immediately suspended.

Raab added: “The Lukashenko regime engaged in a particularly calculating and cynical ploy to force a civilian flight to land under the hoax of a bomb alert - behaviour which is as dangerous as it is deceitful and a flagrant violation of international law."

The Tory Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Tom Tugendhat, asked the Government to call for the suspension of energy pipelines in Belarus.

Tugendhat said the Government was “absolutely right” to impose the new rules on flights and asked: “Will [Raab] also go one step further and call for a suspension of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the Yamal energy pipeline that flows through Belarus, which is where the money comes from that supports this tyrannous regime?”

Raab said the Government would "consider and consult with our partners and see what further action they are willing to take".

The National:

Commenting on Belarus's actions, US secretary of state Antony Blinken called the diversion “shocking”, but EU leaders were particularly forceful in their condemnation of the move against the plane, which was flying between two of the bloc’s member nations and was being operated by an airline based in another member state, Ireland.

READ MORE: West condemns plane’s diversion to arrest Belarus journalist

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin told broadcaster RTE the diversion “certainly was a state-sponsored coercive act”.

“It reflects growing authoritarianism across the world,” he said. “These authoritarian figures taking pre-meditated decisions of this kind… We have to respond very strongly to it.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said it was “yet another blatant attempt by the Belarusian authorities to silence all opposition voices”.

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EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (above) said it amounted to a “hijacking”, while Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called it a “state-sponsored terror act”.

EU leaders are currently meeting to discuss their response, although Nauseda has already called for "airspace over [Belarus to] be recognized unsafe, Belarus aircrafts shall not be accepted in EU airports, immediate investigation by [the International Civil Aviation Organization] and serious sanctions against the regime".

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said it was a “state-sponsored hijacking” and claimed agents from Russia’s KGB were also on board the flight.

“I think it’s very frightening for the crew, for the passengers who were held under armed guard, had their bags searched,” he told Newstalk.

“It was clear it appears that the intent of the Russian authorities was to remove a journalist and his traveling companion.

“We believe there was also some KGB agents offloaded from the aircraft as well.”

Commenting on Shapps's announcement, Green MSP Ross Greer called for the sanctions to go one step further.

He wrote: "The Foreign Secretary should follow this up with sanctions against regime-connected individuals but credit where its due, this is a swift and appropriate response from the Transport Sec." 

SNP MP Gavin Newlands commented: "This is entirely the correct course of action. We must not allow state-sponsored hijacking of aircraft to go unpunished.

"Moreover, the fact the plane was diverted to arrest journalist #RomanProtasevich, who may face the death penalty, is doubly chilling. #Belarus must rethink now."