By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuania has closed its airspace to flights carrying the Slovak and Serbian leaders to Moscow for its World War Two victory parade, President Gitanas Nauseda said on Wednesday.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are among leaders expected to attend World War Two Victory Day commemorations in Moscow, which Russia celebrates on May 9.
“The decisions are negative,” Nauseda said in a video published by news website 15min, in response to a question on flyover permissions for the two leaders.
Aircraft travelling between Russia and Europe have typically used Lithuanian airspace since European carriers were told in 2021 to avoid the shorter route through Belarus as part of punitive measures against Minsk in response to it scrambling a warplane to force the landing of a Ryanair flight.
Ukrainian airspace, another shorter route, has been closed since 2022 due to the Russian invasion.
Lithuania, which borders Russia and its close ally Belarus, is among the strongest supporters in the European Union and NATO of Ukraine against Russia’s three-year-old invasion.
Slovakia and Hungary on Wednesday condemned European Commission plans to phase out Russian gas and other energy imports, deepened their rift with Brussels over relations with Moscow.
Nauseda said the ban was due to GPS disturbances in the region. He did not name possible source of the jamming, which several European countries have earlier blamed on Russia.
“Security of all people travelling through Lithuania, including leaders, is our highest priority, so we took this decision”, said Nauseda.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Jan Harvey)
