Brussels 03.08.2024 “The European Union has taken note of the visit of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to Mongolia on 3 September despite the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant issued against him” reads the statement by the spokesperson on the visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ulaanbaatar.

“The EU regrets that Mongolia, a State Party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, did not comply with its obligations under the statute to execute the arrest warrant.

“President Putin is under an arrest warrant by the ICC for international crimes, specifically alleged crimes of unlawful deportation and unlawful transfer of children from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories in the context of his illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.

“The EU expresses its strongest support for efforts to ensure full accountability for war crimes and the other most serious crimes in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In this regard, the EU supports the investigations by the Prosecutor of the ICC in Ukraine and calls for full cooperation by all State Parties.

“The EU reiterates its unwavering support to the ICC and for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders”.

Vladimir Putin has started an official visit to Mongolia undisturbed, as Ulaanbaatar disregarded an arrest warrant for the Russian president issued by the ICC.

An honour guard welcomed Putin in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday, September 3, as he arrived to meet the country’s leader Ukhnaa Khurelsukh. Mongolia has no responded to the calls for it to arrest the Russian leader on the international warrant.

Mongolia is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President last year over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, including the deportation of the Ukrainian children to Russia.

However, Putin received a truly warm welcome. The capital’s central Genghis Khan Square was decked out with huge Mongolian and Russian flags for his first visit to the neighbouring country in five years.

Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russian in China, jokingly describing its geopolitical situation, as “sharing the den with the bear, and the dragon”. According to the aviation laws, and rules no person may operate an aircraft contrary to an ATC – air traffic control – instruction in an area in which air traffic control is exercised. Subsequently, it would be impossible to comply with the ICC orders, without breaking the international aviation law, in an act of disobedience. Moreover, the refusal to follow ground control is regarded as an act of war. If an aircraft is in sovereign air space, the crew is bound to the rule of law of that sovereignty.

Generally pilots are under strict instructions to always follow the orders of air traffic control. In case ATC orders to land, one has to land, otherwise the aircraft might be also assumed to be hijacked.