Ukraine calls on Brazil to arrest Putin if he attends G20 summit

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said there is information indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin may attend the G20 summit in Brazil next month and called on the country's authorities to execute an arrest warrant for him if he appears, as he said in an interview with Reuters, UNN reports.

Details

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told Reuters in an interview that "it is important for the international community to unite and bring Putin to justice.

In connection with "the information that Putin may attend the G20 summit in Brazil, I would like to reiterate that the Brazilian authorities, as a state party to the Rome Statute, are obliged to arrest him if he dares to visit the country," Kostin said.

I sincerely hope that Brazil will arrest him, reaffirming its status as a democracy and a state governed by the rule of law

Failure to do so risks setting a precedent in which leaders accused of crimes can travel with impunity, he said.

Asked whether a decision had been made on whether Putin would attend the meeting of the world's 20 leading economies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday: "No. When the decision is made, we will inform you.

Brazil has sent Putin a standard invitation to the November 18-19 G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, but has received no indication that he plans to attend, according to two Brazilian government officials.

The ICC prosecutor's office declined to comment.

The court's representative reiterated that it relies on member states and other partners to execute its decisions, including arrest warrants. Member states have an obligation to cooperate under the court's founding treaty, said Fadi El Abdalla, a spokesman for the court.

Addendum

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023, about a year after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, accusing him of the war crime of deporting children.

Despite the ICC warrant, Putin went on an official state visit to Mongolia in September, whose failure to arrest him was criticized by Ukraine as a blow to international justice.

However, last year, Putin did not attend the BRICS meeting in South Africa and was online.

The ICC, composed of 124 member states, was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so on their own.