Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been forced to cancel a trip to Serbia after some of its Balkan neighbors refused to open their airspace to the minister's plane over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"The unthinkable has happened," Lavrov, who has been placed under sanctions by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada, told an online news conference in Moscow on June 6 after the flight was canceled.
"This was a deprivation of a sovereign state of the right to carry out foreign policy," he added.
Russian officials have not named the specific countries that closed their airspace to Lavrov, but the Interfax news agency quoted a senior Foreign Ministry official as saying Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro -- all members of the NATO security alliance -- were the countries involved.
It was the second time Lavrov's travel schedule has been disrupted because of countries closing off airspace to him.
SEE ALSO: The Far-Right Parties Keeping The Serbian President In Check Over UkraineIn late February, just days after Moscow launched its war against Ukraine, he was forced to cancel a trip to Geneva after Brussels closed EU airspace to him. North Macedonia and Montenegro both aspire to join the bloc.
Lavrov was expected to hold meetings with several high-ranking Serbian officials, including President Aleksandar Vucic and Serbian Patriarch Porfirije.
One of the main topics on the agenda was Russia energy supplies to Serbia. The two nations recently signed a three-year agreement on natural gas supplies. Moscow has cut supplies to some European countries who have refused to use a mechanism set up in Russia to pay for energy in rubles.
Even though Belgrade has condemned Russia's war against Ukraine, launched on February 24, it has not joined the EU and many Western allies in slapping sanctions on Russia and most of its leadership.
Moscow and Belgrade have long been close allies and Belgrade recently signed a new three-year contract to receive Russian natural gas.