3 European countries close their airspace.. Russia denounces the Lavrov plane incident

Moscow condemned, on Monday, the closure of 3 European countries of their airspace to a plane that was supposed to carry its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is the target of European sanctions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on a visit to Serbia, as a "hostile" move.

"What happened was unimaginable," Lavrov said, during a press conference held urgently via the Internet. "A sovereign country was deprived of the right to proceed with its foreign policy," and denounced what he considered "disgraceful."

Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro (the three countries that are members of NATO) closed their airspace to Lavrov's plane, which was scheduled to take him to Serbia for a two-day visit, in light of the sanctions imposed by Brussels on Russia after it launched its attack on Ukraine on February 24.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that "such hostile actions against our country can cause certain problems ... but they cannot prevent our diplomacy from continuing its work."

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that it "has not given diplomatic permission for Russian aircraft to fly over Bulgarian territory," stressing that the decision "conforms to the sanctions regime imposed by the European Union on Russia."

North Macedonia and Montenegro also informed the Russian embassies of a similar decision.

Lavrov was forced to cancel his visit to Serbia, where he was scheduled to meet in Belgrade with Serbian President Aleksandar Vujic, Foreign Minister Nikola Silakovic, and Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porverije.

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