Mongolia declines to arrest Putin, defying ICC warrant

• The warrant has complicated Putin's international travel plans. He skipped a summit in South Africa last year after it was issued.
• As an ICC member, Mongolia should have arrested Putin as soon as he arrived for the state visit.
• The country could face legal consequences for defying its obligation to do so.

The big picture: Putin is hardly flying under the radar on the trip. He kicked off a series of meetings with Mongolian leaders on Tuesday with a welcome ceremony in the capital of Ulaanbaatar.

• During a meeting with Mongolian Parliament Speaker Dashzegviin Amarbayasgalan, Putin praised his hosts as "friendly" and "very loyal," Russian state news agency TASS reported.
• A Mongolian government spokesperson told Politico that the country found itself in a difficult position given its energy dependence on Russia.

State of play: The Kremlin said last week that it was not concerned about a potential arrest of Putin during the visit, The Moscow Times reported.

• The ICC and European Commission in recent days have both stressed Mongolia's legal obligations to execute the ICC arrest warrant.

• The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that it "hopes that the Government of Mongolia is aware of the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal."
• "We call on the Mongolian authorities to execute the binding international arrest warrant and transfer Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague," it added.

Flashback: The ICC issued its arrest warrant for Putin in May 2023 over his alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children and teenagers.

Go deeper: What counts as a war crime and why they're so hard to prosecute