Sergey Lavrov

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he is planning to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the coming days to find a way to export Ukraine's grain to the world markets through the Black Sea.

Turkey's foreign minister said today that a plan to alleviate the global food crisis by restarting Ukraine's grain exports along a maritime corridor was "reasonable" and required more talks with Moscow and Kyiv to ensure the safety of ships, Reuters reported.

Turkey has hailed a UN plan with Ukraine and Russia to create a food corridor through the Black Sea in a bid to avert famine in the world's poorest countries as Ankara hosted a meeting between Turkish and Russian foreign ministers, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Sergey Lavrov.

Turkish and Russian top diplomats, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Sergey Lavrov will discuss the modalities of a secure corridor to be established through the Black Sea for the shipment of nearly 20 million tons of grain to world markets to avoid a major global food crisis.

The United States Department of State has described as "independent" the decision of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro not to allow Sergey Lavrov's plane through their airspace.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today described as "unprecedented" the closure of the airspace for his plane by three Eastern European countries, which prevented him from visiting Serbia, BTA reported.

"Something unprecedented has happened," Lavrov told a news conference, criticizing the move as "scandalous".

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria did not provide a diplomatic permit for Russian flights over Bulgarian territory that have on board the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov with a note from June 1.

This is stated in the position of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

It should be recalled that Aleksandar Vui met today with the Russian Ambassador Alexander Botsan Kharchenko, and official confirmation was awaited from him that the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, to Serbia was cancelled.

"This is what Sarmat is good for. It will not ask for consent for the flight from the cowardly Bulgarians, the vicious Romanians and the Montenegrins who betrayed our common history. Like the other various nations like the Swedes."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to Serbia, scheduled for June 6th and 7th, has been canceled due to the refusal of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro to open their airspace to the Russian diplomat's plane, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.