Poland on Wednesday adopted a ban on Belarusian flights using its airspace as part of EU-wide sanctions agreed this week after Belarus arrested a dissident journalist on a diverted flight. "The Council of Ministers has adopted a ban on the entry into Polish airspace of aircraft used by carriers from Belarus," government spokesman Piotr Muller said on Twitter. "This is an element of the implementation of the sanctions requested by the prime minister during the European Council." Poland shares a long border with Belarus and the ban is expected to have a major effect on flights by Belarusian carriers, including the national airline Belavia, to western Europe. There was confusion earlier on Wednesday when a Belarusian flight on route from Minsk to Barcelona could be seen on flight tracking websites circling near the Polish border for several minutes. Polish authorities said they had denied it entry to their airspace because France had said it would not allow it through. But a separate flight from Minsk to Warsaw was allowed to land. Belarusian foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said France's decision not to allow the plane amounted to "air piracy". Polish government official Michal Dworczyk told Polsat news channel that Poland was the fourth country to adopt such a ban this week, following France, Lithuania and Ukraine. "Air traffic will be closed from midnight," he said. EU leaders at their summit this week agreed in principle to banning Belarusian airlines from the bloc and urged EU-based carriers not to fly through Belarusian airspace. Several airlines have already said they will do so. The EU and other Western countries have already imposed a wide range of sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko's government over its crackdown on opposition demonstrations that followed his disputed re-election to a sixth term last August. dt/har