Ukraine asks Mexico to arrest Putin if Sheinbaum attends inauguration

Ukraine’s embassy in Mexico called on the Mexican government on Wednesday to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin on an International Criminal Court arrest warrant if he attends his inauguration.

Mr. “We hope the Mexican government will honor the international arrest warrant” against Putin and if he attends Ms Sheinbaum’s inauguration, “we will hand him over to the United Nations judicial body in The Hague”, the International Criminal Court (ICC). October 1, he said in a statement.

In March 2023, this court issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Putin, accused of war crimes for deporting children from occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia.

Mexico is a signatory to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the ICC, which provides that it is “the duty of every state to submit to its criminal jurisdiction those responsible for international crimes.”

The Ukrainian embassy in Mexico has described the Russian president as a “war criminal” who must answer in court for the invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

On the other hand, he thanked the Mexican government for inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Ms. Scheinbaum’s inauguration.

Mrs. Sheinbaum’s government included future Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramon, Mr. Putin insisted Wednesday that the call was an “ethical procedure.”

Mexico’s first woman president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, who won on June 2, will officially take office on October 1 for a six-year term.