Sergey Lavrov

Moldovan President Maia Sandu has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moldova pays large sums of money for Russian gas - and the country's intentions to join the EU have been known for years.

"Russia has an unblemished reputation and is not ashamed", the Russian foreign minister told a BBC correspondent in Moscow.

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.

"We have clear sanctions for Russian flights. We will not be the ones to illegally let some foreign minister just because he thinks he is right. There is a law, there are rules and our country will follow them.

Alexander Botsan Kharchenko told Russia 24 television that Serbia accepted with great pleasure the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for his Serbian counterpart Nikola Selakovic to visit Russia, and that appropriate instructions have already been given in that regard, the Srna agency reported.

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.

Aleksandar Vucic told state broadcaster Radio-Television Serbia on Monday evening that he has never seen so much hysteria against Serbia as was caused by the announcement that Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be visiting Belgrade.

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.

The State Department said on the occasion of the decision of Montenegro, Bulgaria and North Macedonia not to allow the overflight of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's plane on the way to Belgrade, that they, as sovereign states, "made sovereign decisions on airspace, reflecting Europe's determination to hold Russia "accountable" for the attack on Ukraine.