Mexico rejects Ukraine's request to arrest Russia's Putin during visit

By Diego Oré

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican president on Thursday rejected a request from Ukraine's government to arrest Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader defies an international arrest warrant and attends the inauguration of Mexico's next president in October.

"We can't do that," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government press conference.

"It's not up to us."

Ukraine asked Mexico to arrest Putin if he attends the Oct. 1 swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum. The request, in a statement from Ukraine's Mexican embassy dated Aug. 7, pointed to an arrest warrant issued by the U.N.'s International Criminal Court (ICC).

Sheinbaum's team has invited the Russian president to attend the inauguration, noting earlier this week that it sent a "diplomatic notice" to all countries with which Mexico maintains diplomatic relations.

"We hope the Mexican government is aware that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal with an arrest warrant against him," Ukraine's embassy said in its statement, arguing that Putin is suspected of ordering the kidnapping of Ukrainian children and taking them to Russia.

The statement expressed confidence that the Mexican government will comply.

The ICC issued a warrant for Putin's arrest last year, accusing him of war crimes for illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine to Moscow after it launched its invasion of the neighboring European nation in early 2022.

Russia is not a member of the ICC, but Mexico is.

In June, Putin congratulated Sheinbaum, a Lopez Obrador ally, on her election victory. At the time, he called Mexico a "historically friendly partner of Russia in Latin America."

(Reporting by Diego Ore; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by David Alire Garcia and David Gregorio)