Poland has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to fly through its airspace for a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Hungary. Warsaw said it would be forced to execute an international arrest warrant if he did, Reuters reported.
Trump said last week he planned to meet Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest as part of his efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 and has charged him with war crimes, including the illegal deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC and denies the charges.
"I cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court will not order the government to escort such a plane to hand over the suspect to the court in The Hague", Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told "Radio Rogina".
The ICC order obliges the court's member states to arrest Putin if he sets foot on their territory.
"I think the Russian side is aware of this. "And so if this summit takes place, hopefully with the participation of the victim of aggression, the plane will use another route," Sikorski said.
Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban maintains warm relations with Russia, said it would ensure that Putin can enter the country for the summit and return home afterwards.
However, to avoid traveling through Ukraine, the Russian delegation would have to fly through the airspace of at least one European Union country. All EU countries are members of the ICC, although Hungary is in the process of leaving the court.
Poland, a NATO member, has been among Kiev's most vocal supporters since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Reuters reported.