Outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has rejected Ukraine’s request to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he disregards an international arrest warrant and attends the inauguration of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum in October.
“We cannot do this. It is not up to us,” López Obrador told reporters on Wednesday. Ukraine has requested Mexico to arrest Putin if he attends Sheinbaum’s swearing-in ceremony on October 1.
This request, in a statement from the Ukrainian embassy in Mexico on August 7, refers to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Reuters reports.
“We hope that the Mexican government is aware that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal with an arrest warrant against him,” said the Ukrainian embassy in a statement.
The Ukrainian embassy also claimed that Putin is suspected of ordering the abduction of Ukrainian children and their transfer to Russia, and that he expects Mexico to fulfill the request of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission.
The team of the new Mexican president invited the Russian president to attend the inauguration, noting earlier this week that it had sent a “diplomatic note” to all countries with which Mexico maintains diplomatic relations. In June, Putin congratulated Sheinbaum on her election victory, calling Mexico “a historically friendly partner of Russia in Latin America.”
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of war crimes for the deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine to Moscow following the start of the invasion in February 2022.
Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court, but Mexico is, the British agency recalls.
