By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Kyiv has condemned Mongolia for refusing to arrest visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin despite being a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ukraine expressed its anger while mourning scores of people who died in one of Moscow’s worst attacks in its war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin said Mongolia should face “consequences” for failing to arrest Putin on his first visit to an ICC member state since the court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant last year on war crimes charges.
Putin, who has been accused of the “unlawful deportation and transfer” of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine, received a red-carpet treatment in Mongolia.
Observers weren’t surprised with Mongolia’s reluctance to take Putin into custody: As the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign state, sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia relies on Russia for 95 percent of its petroleum needs.
Before his trip to Ulaanbaatar, the country’s capital, Ukraine and several leading human rights groups had urged Mongolia to arrest Putin on arrival.
‘DEFYING OBLIGATIONS’
“Mongolia would be defying its international obligations as an ICC member if it allows Russian president Vladimir Putin to visit without arresting him,” Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
“Welcoming Putin, an ICC fugitive, would not only be an affront to the many victims of Russian forces’ crimes but also undermine the crucial principle that no one, no matter how powerful, is above the law,” it added.
The warrant obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest the Russian president and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
Putin’s unhindered arrival came as Ukraine on Tuesday experienced one of the deadliest Russian attacks, with at least 51 people reported killed by a Russian missile strike on the central city of Poltava.
Witnesses said Russia struck a military training institute and a nearby hospital in three attacks, which also injured more than 200 others.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said preliminary information showed two ballistic missiles had “partially destroyed” one of the buildings of the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, leaving people under the rubble.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, called it “a stunning tragedy for all of Ukraine” in a post on social media platform X.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest Stories from Worthy News
A massive barrage of Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon just after the terrorist group’s leader declared that two days of intense hybrid bombings, including the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting Hezbollah forces, amounted to a declaration of war.
Facing relentless violence against their communities by Islamic jihadist terror groups, 16.2 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa have now been forced to flee their homes and live in poverty-stricken Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
A Pakistani court has sentenced Shagufta Kiran, a Christian mother of four, to death for “committing blasphemy against Islam,” a senior Christian advocacy activist told Worthy News Thursday.
Amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reiterated that the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Times of Israel reports. The Crown Prince made his remarks during an annual speech to the advisory Shura Council on Wednesday (September 18).
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says that the pager model allegedly used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed numerous people, mainly in Lebanon, was made by its Hungarian partner.