Russia's Putin arrives in ICC member country Mongolia

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Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine ADDS

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia on Monday, his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since the court issued an arrest warrant against him last year.

Putin was greeted by an honor guard when he landed in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. His high-profile visit was seen as a sign of defiance of the court, Kyiv, the West and human rights groups, all of which had called for his imprisonment.

The Russian president is wanted by a court in The Hague for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children since his troops invaded the country in 2022.

Ukraine reacted angrily to the trip.

On Monday, she accused Mongolia of “co-responsibility” for Putin’s “war crimes” after authorities failed to arrest him at the airport.

Kyiv had called on Mongolia to execute the arrest warrant, while the ICC said last week that all its members were “obliged” to arrest those wanted by the court.

In practice, there is little that can be done if Ulaanbaatar does not come along.

The Kremlin said last week that it was not concerned about Putin's arrest.

Located between Russia and China, Mongolia was under Moscow's rule during the Soviet era.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, efforts have been made to maintain friendly relations with both the Kremlin and Beijing.

The country has not condemned the Russian offensive in Ukraine and has abstained from voting on the conflict at the United Nations.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhyi called Mongolia's refusal to arrest Putin a “serious blow” to the legitimacy of the ICC and said Kyiv would put pressure on the country to punish it.

“Mongolia allowed the accused criminal to escape justice and thus bears complicity in his war crimes. We will work with partners to ensure that this has consequences for Ulaanbaatar,” he said in a social media post.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March 2023.

It said there were “sufficient grounds to believe” that Putin was “responsible for the war crime of the illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia.

According to Kyiv, thousands of Ukrainian children were forcibly deported from orphanages and other state institutions after Russian forces seized control of large parts of the country during their invasion in 2022.

Media investigations have found evidence that Ukrainian children have been adopted by Russian families and their names changed, leading to accusations that Moscow is trying to erase their Ukrainian identity.

Russia said it had evacuated some children from the conflict zones for their own protection.

The arrest warrant was dismissed as inconsequential, but the trip to Mongolia is Putin's first to an ICC member state in the 18 months since it was issued.

Last year, he cancelled a visit to the BRICS summit in South Africa, another ICC member country, after pressure from within and without on Pretoria to arrest the Russian president if he attended.

In the past, ICC members have not executed arrest warrants and this has had few consequences other than verbal reprimands.

The Court does not have its own police force and is dependent on the Member States to carry out its orders.

Amnesty International warned on Monday that Mongolia's refusal to arrest Putin could further undermine the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court and embolden the former KGB spy who has been in power for nearly a quarter of a century.

“President Putin is a fugitive from justice,” Altantuya Batdorj, executive director of Amnesty International Mongolia, said in a statement.

“Any trip to an ICC member state that does not result in an arrest will reinforce President Putin's current approach and must be seen as part of a strategic effort to undermine the work of the ICC.”

Amid fierce backlash against the ICC after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mongolia was one of 93 countries to sign a letter expressing their “unwavering support” for the court “as an independent and impartial judicial institution”.

In the statement published in June, the signatories also called on all ICC members to “ensure full cooperation with the Court so that it can fulfil its important mandate of ensuring equal justice for all victims of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression.”