EU leaders leave summit after agreeing Belarus sanctions

The European Union agreed to impose sanctions against Belarus on Monday, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc, amid fury over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist.

After the Polish prime minister described as "an unprecedented act of state terrorism", EU leaders demanded the immediate release of the journalist, Raman Pratasevich, a key enemy of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. In their unusually swift action in Brussels, the EU leaders also urged all EU-based carriers to avoid flying over Belarus and urged the International Civil Aviation Organization to start an investigation into what they viewed as an unprecedented move and what some said amounted to state terrorism or piracy.