The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's annual foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday has split member states, with Baltic nations and Ukraine refusing to attend over the presence of Russia's Sergei Lavrov and urging others to as well.

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.

Ukraine said on Tuesday its foreign minister would boycott a meeting of the OSCE in North Macedonia this week because Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intends to take part for the first time during the 21-month full-scale invasion.

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.

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.

The foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have said that they will join Ukraine in its boycott of this week's OSCE ministerial meeting in Skopje due to the attendance of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

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,