Estonia had been due to take over the annually rotating OSCE chairmanship but Russia spent months blocking it. A last-minute deal for neutral Malta to take over the chairmanship must also be formally approved at Thursday and Friday's OSCE meeting in Skopje, hosted by the current chair North Macedonia.

The OSCE is not the only international body where the West and Russia meet. Lavrov still attends Group of 20 events around the world and the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry says it has given permission to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's plane to cross its airspace en route to North Macedonia's capital, Skopje, where he is to attend a November 29-December 1 meeting of the Council of Ministers of the OSCE.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had received a lot of requests for one-on-one meetings with Sergei Lavrov, Moscow's top diplomat, on the sidelines of an OSCE meeting in North Macedonia.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also said they will not take part in the annual ministerial conference of the pan-European security body.

In order to reach North Macedonia, Lavrov's plane would need to fly over Bulgarian or Greek airspace; Bulgaria announced it has granted such permission.

Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on Tuesday said their foreign ministers would boycott a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in North Macedonia this week because Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intends to take part.

Bulgaria has officially confirmed that it will open its airspace for Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is set to lead a Russian delegation flying to the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,