According to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish government cannot guarantee that an independent court will not order the seizure of a plane carrying Russian President Vladimir Putin if it were to enter Polish airspace. Sikorski reminded Rodzina radio on Tuesday that an international arrest warrant for Putin has been issued for war crimes, the Warsaw correspondent of TASR reports, according to the PAP agency.

Connection with the flight ban

Sikorski made the remarks in connection with the planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Putin in Budapest. He was responding to questions about whether the Russian leader could use the route to travel to Hungary through Polish airspace, where a flight ban for Russian aircraft is in force."We are unable to guarantee that an independent court will not order the government to seize such an aircraft in order to transport a suspect to the Hague tribunal," the minister said.

According to Sikorsky, Putin could reach Hungary, for example, through the airspace of Turkey, Montenegro and Serbia. He also criticized Budapest for inviting a person who is subject to a ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC)."The fact that a member of the Union, still bound by an ICC ruling, invites President Putin shows that Hungary is positioning itself not as part of the West, but between the West and Russia," he said.

The meeting between Trump and Putin is said to follow their phone call last week, during which Trump said they would work to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.