Lavrov Cancels Serbia Visit after Neighbors Close Airspace

By Staff, Agencies

Russia blamed the west after its foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had to cancel a visit to Serbia when the countries around it closed their airspace to his aircraft.

In comments following the move, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “Another closed channel of communication.”

Lavrov had been due to hold talks in Belgrade on Monday with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic but Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried him, according to Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti.

Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has already triggered an EU-wide airspace ban.

“Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” a senior foreign ministry source told Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Vucic was re-elected for a second term in April but the situation in Ukraine presents the president with a significant challenge, as Serbia is seemingly poised between its application to be a member of the EU and an instinctive alliance with Russia.

Serbia and Russia have close historic, religious and cultural ties and Moscow has provided crucial support to Belgrade at the UN Security Council, blocking Kosovo’s independence.

Serbia is totally dependent on Russian oil and gas and has not joined western sanctions against Moscow. In April Vucic accused Ukraine and an unnamed EU country of orchestrating a series of bomb hoax threats against Air Serbia planes.

Vucic and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed last month that Russia would continue supplying natural gas to Serbia, while other countries have been cut off for refusing to pay for Russian gas in the Russian currency, the ruble.