Warsaw hints at seizing Putin's plane if it enters Polish airspace

WARSAW

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Tuesday that Warsaw could, under international law, seize Russian President Vladimir Putin's plane if it enters Polish airspace en route to the planned meeting with US President Donald Trump in Budapest.

"We are unable to guarantee that an independent court will not order the government to detain such a plane in order to bring the suspect to the tribunal in The Hague," Sikorski told Radio Rodzina in Warsaw.

His remark comes as the Kremlin explores non-EU corridors to Hungary for a Budapest summit and as several EU officials criticize the optics of hosting Putin inside the EU.

At the UN in September, Sikorski told Moscow “you’ve been warned” against incursions into NATO airspace.

Since March 2023, the ICC has had an arrest warrant out for Putin for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children—a war crime under the Rome Statute. The ICC states parties are obligated to arrest and surrender a wanted person present on their territory.

Since February, a no-fly zone for Russian aircraft has been in effect over the entire territory of the EU. This has sparked speculation about which route Putin might take to Hungary. When asked about this, Sikorski pointed out that Hungary, an EU member, can be reached from Russia, for example, via the airspace of Turkiye, Montenegro, and Serbia.

Hungary has announced it will withdraw from the ICC, but that withdrawal isn’t effective until mid-2026; until then, Hungary remains bound by ICC obligations.

In 2023, Putin stayed away from a BRICS summit after Pretoria said it would be obliged to arrest him as an ICC member. Also in 2023, he traveled to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are not ICC members. ICC warrants were also issued for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024.