Bulgaria does not allow Lavrov's plane to fly to OSCE meeting because of Zakharova on board, Russia claims

This was reported by the Russian propaganda agency TASS.

According to TASS, Lavrov's plane flew over Turkey and Greece on its way to North Macedonia, although it was previously expected to fly through Bulgaria. In the end, the minister's flight was about 4,000 kilometers long, and the trip took more than 5 hours. 

TASS reported that the Bulgarian side refused to allow Lavrov's plane to enter its airspace because of the presence of a representative of the Russian diplomatic mission, Maria Zakharova, who is under EU sanctions.

Maria Zakharova called this decision of Bulgaria dangerous stupidity. According to her, this is the first time in history that the state authorities have banned a person in an airplane from being in the sky, not an airplane, because, according to a note from the Bulgarian diplomatic mission, the Russian Foreign Ministry's aircraft itself was allowed to fly.

• Earlier it was reported that Bulgaria decided to open its airspace to Lavrov's plane on its way to Skopje for the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting, which takes place from November 29 to December 1. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry emphasized that such permission falls under the exceptions to the EU sanctions regime and is temporary. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explicitly stated that this permit does not apply to members of the delegation who are sanctioned persons under current EU legislation.

• On November 28, it became known that the Ukrainian delegation would not participate in the OSCE ministerial meeting at the level of the Minister of Foreign Affairs: Dmytro Kuleba will boycott the meeting because of the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

• On the same day, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania followed Kuleba in refusing to participate in the OSCE summit. On November 29, Poland made a similar decision.