Putin reportedly welcomed Lukashenko to the Friday meeting with the remarks: "Thank you for coming here, as we agreed even before the current outburst of emotions," He emphasized further, "Yes, it is an outburst of emotions," before saying, "But we have topics to discuss without these developments."

European carriers have been avoiding Belarusian airspace after widespread condemnation of what was dubbed "state hijacking" after Belarusian MiG fighters escorted the Lithuania-bound flight to Minsk where authorities grabbed anti-Lushenko activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend. But by mid-week Russia began blocking European carriers into its airspace which were observed intentionally flying around Belarus' airspace.