Putin won't fly to South Africa as his plane won't be allowed to pass through half the world - diplomat Yelchenko

Volodymyr Yelchenko, a diplomat and former permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, said this on Espreso TV.

“South Africa is a democratic country and, most importantly, it is the leader of Africa. This country simply will not allow itself, even if they want to please Putin and the Russian Federation, to pay off some old debts, which means going against public opinion. And against the majority, even on the African continent. Countries have their own ideas, just like us, about international law and the world order. They do not want to take such a risk to please Putin,” he said.

Yelchenko drew attention to another aspect.

“Open a world map and see how Putin was going to fly to South Africa. You have to fly halfway around the world, make landings somewhere - this is the airspace of other countries. Who will let a plane with a war criminal who is under an arrest warrant through? I think that soon he will not go further than Novo-Ogaryovo (Putin's residence near Moscow - ed.). He's already afraid to fly in Russia - he's already traveling around on an armored train. The parade will take place in Moscow on May 9, and he's afraid of our drones. He already has every reason to be afraid for his own life and for his surroundings. Every day, this understanding and awareness will increase, and this is also to our benefit,” the diplomat concluded.

• On April 26, South Africa announced that it would not withdraw from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

• On May 1, it became known that the South African authorities informally warned Russia that they would be forced to arrest the Russian dictator under an ICC warrant if he flew to the country for the BRICS summit.