South Africa cannot ignore Putin's ICC arrest warrant – Ukraine's Foreign Minister

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, believes that the Republic of South Africa will not be able to ignore Russian President Vladimir Putin’s International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant as Putin prepares to visit South Africa with an official visit.

Source: Dmytro Kuleba on Instagram

Quote from Kuleba: "It is clear that South Africa will not refuse Putin in principle because he is their political ally… They held joint exercises, and a [Russian] ship marked with a letter Z had arrived there. But I don’t think that South Africa will be able to totally ignore the ICC warrant."

Details: Kuleba noted that if countries disregard the International Criminal Court arrest warrants, the ICC as an institution would suffer, so the ICC is interested in ensuring that its warrant is enforced.

Background: Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on 17 March 2023.

Putin is expected to visit the 15th BRICS [an organisation of five leading emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – ed.] summit in South Africa in August. South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute and is required to comply with the ICC arrest warrant.

South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, has said that the government will have to discuss the arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and consult with the Russian side.

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