Vladimir Putin arrest warning as NATO country says it 'cannot guarantee' safe passage

Vladimir Putin has been warned that his jet could be forced down and he be handed over to The Hague on his way to a summit with Donald Trump.

The Russian president is expected to travel to Hungary in the next few weeks to meet his US counterpart to discuss a potential peace deal to bring the war with Ukraine to an end.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin's arrest in 2023, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

That obligated the court's 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

Russia refuted the allegations and laughed off the warrant and the ICC's jurisdiction. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already indicated that Putin can travel to Hungary for talks without fear of arrest.

Bulgarian foreign minister Georg Georgiev was quoted as saying that Putin could also use their airspace without fear of arrest or interference, Reuters reports.

Poland, however, has issued a warning that Putin's plane could be forced down and the Russian president handed over to The Hague should he violate Polish airspace on his way to the summit.

"I cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court won't order the government to escort such an aircraft down to hand the suspect to the court in The Hague," Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Radio Rodzina.

"And, therefore, if this summit is to take place, hopefully with the participation of the victim of the aggression, the aircraft will use a different route."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped to secure Tomahawk cruise missiles in a meeting with Trump last week. However, after a phone call with Putin, Trump called on Kyiv and Moscow to 'stop where they are' in the war, which has lasted more than three years.

On Sunday, Mr Trump said that the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be 'cut up', leaving most of it in Russian hands.

Russia controls roughly 20 per cent of Ukraine, with Kyiv officials refusing to hand any more over as part of a peace deal.