Putin "in the air"/ Poland threatens him with arrest if he flies through its airspace

2025-10-21 17:46:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Putin "in the air"/ Poland threatens him with arrest if he flies

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has spoken about the planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Budapest.

The minister warned Putin that he could face the execution of the international arrest warrant issued against him if the Russian president's plane flies into Polish airspace.

"We cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court will not order the government to stop a plane in order to transfer the suspect to the Hague tribunal," Sikorski said in an interview.

Sikorski said Moscow will try to avoid flights over EU countries that strongly support Ukraine.

"I think the Russian side knows this, and that is why if this summit is to take place, hopefully with the participation of a victim of aggression, it will follow a different path. There is a theoretical possibility of flying through Turkey, Montenegro and Serbia ," Sikorski added.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin, suspected of ordering war crimes in Ukraine through the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

On the other hand, Hungarian officials had previously stated that they would not detain Putin during a possible visit, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that preparations for the Budapest summit were already underway, despite the ICJ indictment against Putin.

Hungary is a member of the ICC but is preparing to withdraw from the court, a decision that is expected to take effect next year. Vladimir Putin has not visited any European Union capital since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. /CNA