As preparations get underway for a highly anticipated summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former US President Donald Trump in Budapest, attention is turning to an unusual but politically sensitive detail: how will Putin actually reach the Hungarian capital without violating European airspace restrictions or international law?

The meeting, hosted in an EU country and a Nato member state, is a slap in the face for Brussels which will not be participating in any way in the meeting and in defiance of EU sanctions on Russia.

In theory Putin can fly to Budapest and visit the Hungarian capital as he is not personally on any sanctions list. There is an arrest warrant for Putin’s arrest, who is charged with kidnapping children from Ukraine, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for kidnapping Ukrainian children, but Hungary withdrew from the Rome Statutes in April this year.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban nixed the Rome Statutes so that he could host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April, who is also wanted by the ICC on war crime charges.

However, despite nixing the treaty, legally the statute will still be in force until June 2, 2026 and so technically the arrest warrant is still in force in Hungary and authorities should arrest Putin on his arrival. But given Netanyahu successfully visited Hungary with impunity, an arrest seems highly unlikely.

A second problem makes the trip difficult: after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 all Russian airline permissions to enter European airspace have been rescinded.

However, an exception to this rule was recently made for the first time when on July 28, the plane of the grand dame of Russian politics, Valentina Matviyenko, Chairwoman of Russia's Federation Council, was given permission to fly to fly through EU airspace to attend the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva, Switzerland.

Matviyenko is a close Putin ally who has been under EU sanctions since 2014, but her trip marked the first such overflight by a senior sanctioned Russian official since 2022. As it was, the decision backfired as most of the delegates at the conference walked out as soon as she got on stage.

Matviyenko's Russian government plane (also an Il-96) entered EU airspace via Italy after crossing from Turkey over the Mediterranean, then proceeded to Geneva. It returned on July 30 via French and Italian airspace, avoiding the full EU ban through special exemptions.

According to AirLine, Putin’s aircraft is expected to minimise the need for permissions by taking a long southern detour, bypassing EU airspace almost entirely. The route would take the plane via Turkey and the southern Balkans, which have all refused to join the sanctions regime. It is expected to be escorted by Turkish and Russian fighter jets along the full distance to mitigate the risk of drone or missile attacks by Ukraine or anyone else.

The flight, which would ordinarily cover 1,500 km, could stretch to 5,000 km, adding as much as three hours to the journey. While Russia’s presidential aircraft is technically capable of such range, the detour will require careful coordination with Turkish, Serbian and possibly Bosnian air traffic control, and create additional risks due to regional military activity, especially over the Black Sea.

In February 2022, the European Union closed its airspace to all Russian aircraft, including state and presidential flights, in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has not confirmed the final route. “Putin’s flight route to meet with President Trump in Hungary is, of course, still unclear,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, adding that Orbán had initiated a call with Putin to express Hungary’s willingness to host the summit.

“Viktor Orbán expressed his readiness to provide conditions for the organisation of a possible Russian-American summit in Budapest,” Peskov said. “Putin informed the Hungarian prime minister about the content of his telephone conversation with Donald Trump.”

Orbán, who has maintained warm relations with both Putin and Trump, hailed the summit as a breakthrough.

“The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world,” he posted on X. “We are ready!”

Trump echoed the sentiment in a detailed statement following what he called a “very productive” phone call with Putin last week.

“At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors next week,” he wrote, naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio to lead the US delegation.

Trump added: “President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ war, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”

The proposed summit will be closely watched, not just for its diplomatic implications, but for its legal and symbolic resonance.