Ukraine's chief A prosecutor said he had received intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be traveling to the G20 meeting in Brazil and called on authorities there to ensure his arrest, according to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). in The Hague, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Putin has been charged by the ICC with war crimes related to the deportation of children, and the arrest warrant was issued in March 2023 - about a year after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow denies the allegations of war crimes, and the Kremlin described the arrest warrant as “invalid and groundless”.
Asked if a decision has been made for Putin to travel to the meeting of the leaders of the world's twenty largest economies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media today: “No (it has been made). When there is a solution, we will let you know”.
Ukraine's chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin said in an interview with Reuters that “it is important for the international community to remain united and hold Putin accountable.
Due to the information that “Putin may join the G20 meeting in Brazil, I want to reiterate that the Brazilian authorities have an obligation as a state party under the Rome Statute to detain him if he dares to visit the country&rdquo ;, Kostin said, referring to the treaty establishing the ICC.
„I sincerely hope that Brazil will arrest him to confirm its status as a democracy and a country governed by the rule of law,”, he stressed. Failure to do so risks setting a precedent in which leaders accused of criminal offenses can travel with impunity, Ukraine's chief prosecutor added.
Brazil has sent Putin a standard invitation to the November 18-19 G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, but has so far received no indication that he will attend, Brazilian officials said.
The ICC has not yet commented, but a spokesman for the court also said it counted on treaty states and their partners to comply with its rulings, including arrest warrants. The member countries “have an obligation to cooperate in accordance with the treaty establishing the ICC”, said the spokesman Fadi El Abdallah.
Among the six high-ranking Russian government officials for whom an arrest warrant has been issued are the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, the former Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu, as well as Viktor Sokolov and Sergey Kobylash, who are accused of direct attacks on civilian objects.
Despite the arrest warrant, Putin was not detained in September during his official visit to Mongolia, which has drawn criticism from Ukraine for undermining international justice.
Last year, Putin did not travel to the BRICS meeting in South Africa and joined online.
124 countries are members of the ICC. The court was established in 2022 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression that member states are unable or unwilling to prosecute on their own.