Zelensky on Putin's visit to Mongolia: world must stop degradation of legal system

The legal system should work in such a way that the Rome Statute, in particular the International Criminal Court warrant that was issued for Vladimir Putin, would limit him and ensure his isolation.

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this during the high-level international conference "United for Justice. Accountability for Attacks on Civilian Facilities," an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The world has many conventions, thousands of pages worth of declarations, the Rome Statute works in over a hundred countries around the world. Or should work. But recently there was an exception – in Mongolia, for Vladimir Putin. It is not just someone's individual responsibility, but the entire world's – to stop the degradation of the legal system, to prevent the destruction of those norms that still remain in place. The legal system should work in such a way that the Rome Statute, in particular the warrant by the International Criminal Court, which was issued for the main Russian criminal, would limit him and ensure his isolation," Zelensky said.

He emphasized that this is how societies react to criminals – they isolate them.

"This is exactly the way to react to Putin – to put pressure on him, isolate him, force him to end the war and seek peace," the president remarked.

Zelensky recalled that in a few months, Brazil will host the G20 summit.

"A very serious event. We heard that they were planning to invite Putin, but to do that they would have to destroy the law and ignore the Rome Statute again. Shouldn't there be responsibility for this?" noted the head of state.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin met with his Mongolian counterpart in Ulaanbaatar on September 3. This was his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court since the latter issued an arrest warrant for the Russian dictator last year in connection with Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Mongolia explained that they did not arrest Putin because the country was in a situation of energy dependence, which makes it difficult to arrest the Russian dictator on an ICC warrant.