Although we don't yet know the exact date, all signs point to Russian President Vladimir Putin arriving in Budapest in the next two weeks to meet with US President Donald Trump, but as the BBC pointed out, not only is the meeting difficult to arrange, but the travel itself is also fraught with obstacles. For example, in European Union airspace, where Russian planes have been banned since Putin launched an attack on Ukraine in 2022.

The same is true of American airspace, so when Putin traveled to Alaska in August for the Anchorage summit, the United States gave special permission for the Russian presidential plane, the Ilyushin Il-96, nicknamed the “flying Kremlin.”

Putin has not been to the EU for years, and Hungary, which is not only an EU but also a NATO member state, will not be easy for him to approach. The fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes adds a special twist to the story. However, the Hungarian government decided just this year to withdraw from the ICC (shortly before the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has also been the subject of an international arrest warrant since last autumn on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity), means that – from Putin’s perspective – that is one less problem.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Friday that preparations for the Budapest summit have begun, and part of this includes allowing Putin to enter Hungary and then return home.

The question is, how will the Russian president fly from Moscow to Budapest? According to the BBC, the simplest and most direct solution, namely to fly to Belgrade on an Air Serbia plane and then travel by train to Budapest, is clearly out of the question under the circumstances.

His security requires him to travel on the Russian presidential plane, but that means he must use the airspace of an EU or NATO member state and obtain permission to do so, violating the union's ban on Russian aircraft.

Even if he gets permission, the map suggests that Putin will have to take a detour. Ukraine is out of the question, and probably Poland too, as relations between Warsaw and Moscow are at a low point.

Perhaps the most direct route is along the eastern coast of the Black Sea and through Turkey, via Bulgaria and Serbia or Romania to Hungary. This would require the consent of two EU member states, Bulgaria and Romania, who would have to escort Putin's plane through their airspace. NATO's largest European base is being built in Romania, and Bulgaria is also building a NATO base to strengthen the eastern flank of the defense alliance.

If Putin wants even more security, he could fly through Turkey, along the southern coast of Greece, and then through Montenegrin airspace before arriving in Serbia. However, this is a much longer route, the BBC reports.