Chernihiv minibus crash and Belarus bans: 7 December 2021
A road collision near Chernihiv killed 13 people, while Belarus's retaliation against Western sanctions had been announced a day earlier.
What happened on 7 December 2021? In Ukraine, the day brought a road tragedy: a collision involving a minibus near Chernihiv left 13 people dead and a further 7 injured.
The reports from that day gave no further detail on the circumstances of the crash, and this account sticks to the toll as it was reported.
Belarus hits back at sanctions
The regional news picture was also shaped by developments on 6 December 2021, when Belarus banned airlines and imports of certain goods from the European Union and the United Kingdom. Minsk presented the measures as retaliation for sanctions imposed on the country by Western nations.
The step came amid the border crisis between Belarus and the European Union. From August 2021, the Belarusian government had begun sponsoring an influx of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa, to the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. Belarus denied involvement, but the European Union and independent observers viewed it as hybrid warfare, undertaken in response to the deterioration in relations after the 2020 presidential election and the 2020–2021 protests.
Between August and December 2021, tens of thousands of unauthorised crossing attempts were recorded, peaking in October. Later, at least 20 migrants died during the following winter because of harsh weather and abuse from border authorities. Crossing attempts fell sharply the next year, though they never returned to pre-crisis levels, and numbers began rising again in spring 2024, remaining well below the 2021 peak.
