South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a strong warning against any attempt to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the country, stating that it would be tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia.

Ramaphosa's statement comes ahead of the upcoming BRICS 2023 summit, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on 22 – 24 August. Putin is expected to attend.

In March 2023, Putin was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. According to the Rome Statute, all 123 member states of the ICC are obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory. South Africa is one of those 123 countries.

The country has previously refused to honour its obligations to the ICC, most notably in 2015, when it granted safe passage to Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir in 2015, who was wanted for war crimes.

"South Africa has obvious problems with executing a request to arrest and surrender President Putin," Ramaphosa explained in an affidavit. "Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war. It would be inconsistent with our constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia."

The affidavit was presented in court, where the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's largest opposition party, has filed a court petition demanding the arrest of Putin upon his arrival in the country.

In the same affidavit, Ramaphosa highlighted ongoing diplomatic efforts by several African nations to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv to put an end to the war.

In light of the potential complications following a Putin visit to South Africa, Pretoria has attempted to convince Moscow to send Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead in his place, so far without success.

"We understand we are bound by the Rome Statute but we can’t invite someone and then you arrest them. You can understand our dilemma,” Mashatile told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian.

“We would be happy if he doesn’t come. But we didn’t take a view to say we are not inviting you. We said you are invited but there is this situation. I would say maybe give us a week, we should be able to know how we are going to manage this.”

There have also been suggestions that the summit could be held online. However, despite the ICC warrant against Putin, Ramaphosa remains committed to holding an in-person summit. Mashatile revealed that Brazil, India, China, and South Africa all opposed the idea of a virtual summit, while India and Brazil rejected the proposal to move the 2023 summit to China.