The plane of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić probably flew over Bulgaria on its way to Russia. This is shown by a flight map published by the BBC.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić left for Moscow to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of Victory Day. His route was not clear: the head of state's plane first took off from Belgrade for Baku, where it delayed for some time, and only then flew to the Russian capital.

The Embraer aircraft with the call sign YUSRB took off from Belgrade at 8:31 a.m. GMT and landed at Baku airport at 11:36 a.m., according to data from the ADS-B Exchange air traffic monitoring service.

The stopover in Baku was described by Serbian media, including the Tanjug news agency, as an "emergency landing." According to them, the plane was unable to obtain permission to continue its flight "due to military operations" — Moscow airports have been operating intermittently in recent days due to drone attacks.

At the same time, an unnamed source at TASS said that the landing in Baku was planned. "It was necessary to refuel the plane," the state agency quoted its interlocutor as saying.

In any case, the Serbian president's flight spent just over an hour in Baku and departed for Moscow at 12:43 p.m.

A little less than three hours later, the plane with Vučić on board landed in Moscow, with footage of its arrival shown on the Russia-24 television channel.

AirSerbia flights from Belgrade to Moscow usually fly over Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. However, on the eve of Vučić's trip, Lithuania and Latvia refused to allow the Serbian president's plane into their airspace, so he had to choose a non-standard route.

According to a map published by the BBC, this route includes Serbia, Bulgaria, the Black Sea, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

Vučić is one of the few European heads of state who will visit Moscow on May 9.

Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2012, and the bloc warned that Vučić's visit to Russia could close the door on the country's accession to the union.

On Saturday, May 3, Vučić suddenly canceled his visit to the US, where he was supposed to meet with Donald Trump, due to health reasons. On the evening of the same day, cardiologist Dragan Dincic said it would be unrealistic to expect the Serbian president to return to his normal activities in the coming days.

However, Vucic did not cancel his trip to Moscow. | BGNES