Closed airspace for Lavrov: Russia denounces a “hostile act” – archyde

European countries around Serbia have closed their airspace, preventing Sergei Lavrov’s plane from landing in Belgrade on Monday, according to Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. A “hostile act” denounced by the Kremlin, while the main party, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, criticized an “inconceivable” and “scandalous” measure. The visit of the Russian minister was thus canceled, according to a Russian diplomatic source quoted by the Interfax news agency. “Russian diplomacy has not yet learned to teleport,” the source explained. According to the Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti, these include Serbia’s three neighboring countries: Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro. “Today (…), the countries surrounding Serbia, closed the channel of communication, refusing to authorize the overflight of the plane of Sergei Lavrov, who was going to Serbia”, declared Sunday evening Maria Zakharova , quoted by Russian news agencies, to the Italian television channel La7. But EU and NATO member countries have closed their airspace,” she added. The Russian Foreign Minister was supposed to meet in Belgrade with the Serbian President, his Serbian counterpart Nikola Selakovic and the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porfirije. For his part, the Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament , Konstantin Kosatchev, on Monday morning denounced the closure of airspace for Sergei Lavrov’s plane as a step directed “against Russia as a state and Serbia as a state”. “I hope that the reaction will be common and extremely severe, not only in the form of diplomatic protests, but also will translate into practical, concrete actions,” Konstantin Kosatchev wrote on Telegram messaging. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Sunday that the situation around this visit was “exceptionally complicated” due to the impossibility of overflights of certain countries and that the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was himself working on the organi station of the visit. Sergei Lavrov has been targeted since February 25, the day after the invasion of Ukraine, by sanctions from the European Union, as has Russian President Vladimir Putin.