Putin Threatened with Arrest if He Dares Fly Through Poland
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been dared to attend U.S. President Donald Trump’s event, a summit scheduled to take place in Hungary.
While addressing the media on Tuesday, October 2, 2025, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski warned Putin against traveling through its airspace for the summit expected to happen in Hungary.
“I cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court won’t order the government to escort such an aircraft down to hand the suspect to the court in The Hague.
And, therefore, if this summit is to take place, hopefully with the participation of the victim of the aggression, the aircraft will use a different route,” said the Polish Foreign Minister.
Poland Warns Putin of Arrest if He Uses Polish Airspace
Elsewhere, Budapest, where Trump mentioned he and Putin planned to meet to discuss the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, has pledged to allow the Russian president safe entry, despite an active arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which requires signatories to detain him upon arrival.
Trump’s meeting with Putin aims at brokering a truce to end the war.
Sikorski criticized the move, calling Putin’s potential invitation to Hungary “distasteful.” He argued that such a decision places Hungary in a position of alignment between Russia and the West, rather than firmly within the Western bloc. He also stressed the need for Ukraine to be involved in any such summit.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria has expressed a willingness to permit Russian aircraft carrying Putin to pass through its airspace if the meeting takes place in Hungary, according to its Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev.
What ICC Says About Warrant of Arrest
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of individual criminal responsibility for the war crime of unlawfully deporting and transferring Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia, in violation of the Rome Statute.
The warrant was issued alongside one for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, based on evidence from ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s investigation into crimes committed since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) maintains that no leader, regardless of their official position, is exempt from prosecution or arrest once a warrant is issued.
Under its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, ICC member states have a legal obligation to arrest and surrender a leader on their territory for whom an active warrant exists. Currently, the ICC has issued warrants for sitting leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, the ICC lacks an independent police force and must rely on state cooperation, which cannot be guaranteed.
