Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that he will visit the first NATO member state since the invasion of Ukraine

Lavrov is scheduled to participate in an OSCE meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia, this week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is planning to visit North Macedonia later this week to attend a conference. This visit would be his first to a NATO member country since Moscow deployed troops to Ukraine.

Russia is one of the 57 members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), established during the Cold War to ease East-West tensions.

North Macedonia, currently holding the OSCE chairmanship, extended an invitation to Lavrov for the OSCE foreign ministers' meeting starting Thursday in Skopje, the capital of the Balkan country.

NATO members have restricted Russian flights since Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022. To reach North Macedonia, Lavrov's plane would need to fly through the airspace of Bulgaria or Greece, both NATO members.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry granted permission on Monday for Lavrov's plane to overfly Bulgarian airspace. The permission, granted in response to North Macedonia's request, is an exception to the EU sanctions regime against Lavrov. However, it does not apply to members of his delegation who are also under EU sanctions.

In Moscow, Lavrov mentioned receiving requests for bilateral meetings from several foreign ministers attending the Skopje conference. His deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, stated that Lavrov wouldn't meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, also expected at the OSCE meeting.

Lavrov argued that the current security situation in Europe is more perilous than during the Cold War. He emphasized that during that era, the Soviet Union, the US, and NATO sought to manage their rivalry through political and diplomatic means without expressing such serious concerns about their future.

Lavrov declared Moscow's focus on safeguarding its interests in key sectors of the economy, overall life, and security rather than rebuilding ties with Europe. This defiant stance appears to reflect Moscow's anticipation that Western support for Ukraine might diminish amid upcoming elections in the US and Europe, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the status of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Lavrov asserted that while some in the West might aim to freeze the conflict to give Ukraine time to rearm, Moscow would carefully consider offers based on their alignment with Russian interests and the reliability of European counterparts. Lavrov criticized the West, stating they have severely damaged their reputation.