“Personally, I was not expecting this kind of event to happen in 2021,” said Ciucă, who was speaking in the Romanian capital Bucharest during the Atlantic-Black Sea Security Forum, organised by the Aspen Institute Romania in partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Ciucă added, however, that the hijacking should not remain without sanctions.
“It is an attack on our way of life, on democracy,” he said.
In Russia’s immediate neighbourhood, the downing of the plane was less unexpected, and defence ministry officials were quick to point the finger at the Kremlin.
“In Kyiv, [the incident] did not come as a surprise,” said Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, adding: “Belarus has already been annexed by Russia, by hybrid measures, just as happened in Crimea.”