Moscow has decided to lift all restrictions on flights to and from Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced following talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday.

"Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] does not know yet about a decision that a governmental commission has just made not so far from here, in the House of Government. The decision is to lift all coronavirus restrictions on air transportation (between the two countries - TASS)," Putin said.

"Before all the so-called coronavirus restrictions were introduced, we used to have over 200 flights a week - 201 to be precise - and now there are only 36. I don’t think that the number will go back to the pre-pandemic level of over 200 flights in just a couple of days but I believe that the recovery will be fast," Putin noted.