NATO nations block Russian envoy’s plane from Serbia visit

By JOVANA GEC
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia and Russia say a planned visit by Russia’s foreign minister to the Balkan country will not take place. Moscow is accusing the West of preventing the trip on Monday by blocking the envoy’s plane. The announcement followed reports that Serbia’s neighbors — Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro — had refused to allow Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s plane to fly through their airspace to reach Serbia. Lavrov told reporters “an unthinkable thing has happened.” He added that “a sovereign state has been deprived of its right to conduct foreign policy.” He is blaming NATO for engineering the flight ban, since all three countries are members of the military alliance.