Russian president Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS Summit, which will convene next month in Johannesburg. Had he attended, he would have faced the possibility of arrest, as South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

After weeks of speculation about how South Africa would handle the diplomatic dilemma, the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa made its announcement about the Russian leader’s plans in a statement earlier today.

“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the submit but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister, Mr Sergey Lavrov,” the press release said. Russia will be the only country not represented by its head of state at the summit.

The ICC issued a warrants for the arrests of Putin and Kremlin official Maria Lvova-Belova, alleging that they have overseen a vast deportation program through which Ukrainian children have been brought to Russia. The unlawful deportation of population is a war crime, and South Africa, as a signatory to the Rome Statute — the international treaty that governs the court — would have been compelled to arrest Putin.

South Africa officially maintains a non-aligned foreign policy and Ramaphosa led a delegation of African leaders on a mission to negotiate peace, holding meetings with Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.

But South African leaders have also declined to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the country has developed closer ties with Moscow. The general who leads South Africa’s army traveled to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart in May.

Those growing ties have made South Africa the occasional target of U.S. criticism. U.S. ambassador to South Africa Ruben Brigety recently alleged that a Russian warship docked at a port near Johannesburg and received a shipment of weapons there. In the weeks since, the Biden administration has declined to elaborate publicly on Brigety’s assertion, which Ramaphosa has denied.

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, reacted to the news that Putin would not travel to South Africa for the summit. “A person with an arrest warrant issued by the ICC (The Hague) will not fly to South Africa for the BRICS Summit. Regardless of the fact that he still has the status of “president”. This is how international law should work. You committed a crime? Start looking over your shoulder. Restriction of any opportunities, fear of traveling, self-isolation, reputational collapse,” said Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, in a post to Twitter. “In the end, there will be a mandatory dock. . . .”