International Criminal Court

"Bulgaria will arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if for some reason he ends up in our country", announced Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev in an interview with the Faktor.bg.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa said, it was the ruling party's decision, the African National Congress, which was made because of "unfair treatment" towards other countries.

Day 420 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

"No matter how much disinformation Russia spreads, it cannot deny the truth" about the deportation of Ukrainian children from territories under its control, nor protect individuals from responsibility for these crimes.

Gulyas's above statement, therefore, can be seen as yet another example of his government's toadying attitude towards Russia. As it is highly unlikely that Putin would travel to Hungary or any other country in the EU, the problem of arresting him will never materialise, so Gulyas probably feels able to lie about the ICC statute without any risk.

The team that collected evidence of crimes in Ukraine, and on the basis of which an arrest warrant was issued for the Russian president, is headed by a man who is well known to Serbia.

Day 398 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

"Relations at the moment between EU member states and Russia are not such as to suggest a visit by the President of the Russian Federation. So the question is currently meaningless."

Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, was even more dismissive of the whole affair at his regular Thursday presser, saying that Putin "would not be arrested in Hungary" because the ICC's Rome Statute was never promulgated in Hungary due to it being "incompatible with the Hungarian constitution".

Hungary will not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he enters the country, said Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, adding that there would be no legal grounds for doing so.