Ukraine calls on Asian country to arrest Putin

Kyiv demands that Mongolia arrest Russian president during his upcoming visit

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has called on Mongolia to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) when he visits the country next week.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has already dismissed all concerns about the upcoming visit and stated that all details are “worked out” between the two nations. “We have excellent relations with our friends from Mongolia,” Peskov told reporters.

“The International Criminal Court, whose jurisdiction is recognized by Mongolia, has issued an arrest warrant against him. We call on the Mongolian authorities to comply with the mandatory international arrest warrant and extradite Putin,” he said. to the ICC, the Kiev Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, describing the Russian president as “War criminals.”

An ICC spokesman told the BBC that Mongolia had “the obligation” to comply with the Court's rules. However, the Convention on which the Court is based, the Rome Statute, provides for exceptions in some cases, namely when an arrest “Breach of a contractual obligation” of a State or compel it to violate the “diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third State.”

The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March 2023, accusing him “illegal deportation of the population (children)” a “Illegal transfer of population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine” to Russia.

Moscow dismissed the allegations as absurd and stressed that evacuating civilians from a combat zone is not a crime. In addition, neither Ukraine nor Russia have ever signed the Rome Statute, so the ICC has no jurisdiction in this matter.