Meeting with Trump in Budapest, Bulgaria to open corridors for Putin's plane

This was announced by Sofia Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev. “If holding a meeting is a condition for achieving peace, it is logical that this will happen through all possible channels”, he explained in the margins of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

“How is the meeting proposed if one of the participants cannot reach it?” added Georgiev.

A Bulgarian official also confirmed that Moscow has not yet submitted an official request to allow Putin's plane to cross over the Balkan state.

Bulgaria is not directly limited to Hungary. However, the two countries are limited to Serbia, which has strong historical ties with Moscow. Passing through Bulgaria would significantly cut Putin's flight time towards Budapest.

The only other route that does not include passing through EU or Ukraine airspace would be flying over the Mediterranean, then crossing over Montenegro or Albania, to reach Budapest through Serbia.

The summit, which was announced by Trump after a call with Putin last week and for which no date has been set, has sparked different reactions among EU leaders.

EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaya Kallas and many eastern EU countries have criticised the planned meeting for the expulsion of Ukrainian President Volody Zelenskyy.

But ministers from many Western EU countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and France, have expressed careful support for the meeting, which would be the first face-to-face summit between Trump and Putin since their meeting in Alaska in August. /Periscope/