Three Airbus Airplanes Were Delivered To Belarus Bypassing Sanctions

• 30.05.2025, 16:12

Through a Gambian gasket company.

Belavia is preparing to fly on Airbus airplanes, purchased bypassing sanctions. The planes, made in Europe, were delivered to Belarus through a Gambian laying firm.

The aircraft in question are Airbus A330-200. They have already received registration numbers EW-587pd, EW-588pd and EW-589pd, a source in the aviation industry told the investigators of the "Bureau."

One of the planes, repainted in Belavia livery, was caught in the frame of a video shot recently at the National Airport in Minsk. On the video you can make out the Belarusian registration number EW-589pd.

Belavia has never had Airbus airplanes in its fleet, but the Russian Aeroflot has been using them for a long time. Therefore, Belarusian flight attendants have been learning to service the airplanes, arriving in Minsk, since the end of last year. Investigators found photos of this training in social networks.

One more source in the aviation sector told reporters that Belavia expects to launch only two airplanes by the end of this year at best. Now they are being put in order, as the planes are more than 20 years old and the cabin is worn out.

The Gambian company Magic Air was used to purchase planes to circumvent the EU sanctions, in force since December 2021. It formally owns the airplanes and delivered them to Minsk. Gambia does not fall under the Western aviation sanctions and has not assumed any obligations to comply with them.

The principal owner of Magic Air is a Jordanian businessman of Syrian origin, Tarek Ziyad Abdel Hamid al-Ajami. He previously brought Airbus planes for the Syrian airline Cham Wings, which under Bashar al-Assad was used to transport Syrian mercenaries, arms trafficking, drug trafficking and money laundering. The EU also imposed sanctions on Cham Wings because the company transported migrants from Syria trying to enter the EU illegally to Belarus.