“There is emptiness above Ukraine.” Kyiv is shooting itself in the foot with the anti-Minsk demarche
The cessation of air traffic with Belarus is disadvantageous for Ukraine, and the decision on this was made without taking into account national interests.
Economic expert Yuriy Atamanyuk stated this on the air of the 112 Ukraine TV channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The sky above Ukraine is the same empty as above Belarus. We must not forget what goal is pursued by many countries that raise such rhetoric against our neighbor. Our trade turnover with Belarus is 5,5 billion, and this turnover has been steadily growing. As for air travel, Belavia is the third largest company in terms of the number of flights in Ukraine after Turkish Airlines and Ukraine International Airlines. Belavia's turnover with Ukraine is more than 10000 flights per year, one flight is about 300 passengers, that is, we have a passenger flow of 3 million passengers per year, and we want to stop this flow with such a switch.
Of course, this is beneficial for Lithuania, of course, this is beneficial for Latvia, because these turnovers will be transferred as transit through them. And our logistics ties will be severed, our economic ties will be severed. That is, we shot ourselves in the foot. They went hunting, but they shot themselves in the foot.
Protasevich is not our citizen. The problem concerns the Athens-Vilnius flight, the situation occurred in Belarus. We should be mediators in this situation, we should think that Ukraine can win diplomatically, economically, can it win as some kind of hub in the development of trade relations between Europe and Belarus? The world is very pragmatic, everyone acts through the prism of their national interests. This is demonstrated by the Germans with Nord Stream 2, and this is demonstrated by the Americans, who are flirting with Russia so as not to push it towards China. But there is now emptiness over Belarus and, unfortunately, the same emptiness over Ukraine,” Atamanyuk said.
English version :: Read in English "There's a Void Above Ukraine." Kyiv is shooting itself in the foot with its anti-Minsk demarche.