An angry United States criticized Brazil on Monday (17) after President Luiz Inácio Lula Silva (PT) said the country was encouraging the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to journalists, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said quite undiplomatic Lula “repeats Russian and Chinese propaganda like a parrot without looking at the facts.”
He also said that the Brazilian president’s comments “were misguided.”
The spokesman further stated that “obviously” the United States wants the war to end and that this would be possible “if Vladimir Putin stopped attacking Ukraine and withdrew his troops.”
Kirby said that Lula’s remarks are “deeply problematic.” He also noted that Lula’s comments about the possibility of Ukraine ceding Crimea to Russia were “simply wrong.”
“Brazil’s most recent comments that Ukraine should consider formally ceding Crimea as a peace concession are simply wrong, especially for a country like Brazil, which voted to defend the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity [at the UN],” Kirby said.
In a conversation with journalists on Monday (17), the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Mauro Vieira, answered John Kirby.
Vieira asked if he agreed with the statement that Brazil was repeating Russian discourse, saying: “I don’t agree. I don’t know how and why he came to this conclusion. I don’t even know who said this. Who was it? I don’t know the reasons why he said it.”
On Monday (17), European Union Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano responded to Lula and said that prolonging the conflict is Russia’s fault.
“It is not true that the United States and the European Union are helping to prolong the conflict. We have offered Russia numerous possibilities for a negotiating agreement on civilized terms,” the European bloc spokesman said.
LULA AND LAVROV
The Brazilian president received the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, on Monday (April 17).
In a speech at Itamaraty Palace, Lavrov said Russia and Brazil have “unique visions in relation to the events” in the world.
According to Lavrov, the 2 countries are “united by a common desire” to contribute to building a “more just, truthful and democratic” world.
The Russian FM also thanked Brazil for contributing to the search for an end to the war in Ukraine and invited Lula and Mauro Vieira to visit Russia.
Lavrov also stated that Brazil and Russia are “achieving a more just, correct, law-based world order, and this gives us a vision of a multipolar world.”
The Russian chancellor made his speech in Russian, and Itamaraty did a simultaneous translation into Portuguese available. For him, the Ukrainian war needs to be resolved in a “lasting way, not immediately.
Celso Amorim, Lula’s special advisor, was in Moscow at the end of March and met with President Vladimir Putin.
After Amorim’s meeting, Lula made a pro-Russian statement on the country’s war with Ukraine.
In a meeting with journalists on April 6 at the Palácio do Planalto, the president said Ukraine should cede territories to Russia in exchange for a peace agreement.
“Ukraine’s [President Volodymyr] Zelensky cannot have everything he wants,” Lula said at the time.
On April 7, Zelensky released a video saying that “respect and order will return only when the Ukrainian flag returns to Crimea.”
He did not quote Lula.
The Brazilian president also returned to the subject when he left Beijing (China) on Saturday (Apr.15) after a two-day visit to the Asian country.
He said the United States must stop encouraging the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“The United States must stop encouraging war and start discussing peace.”
‘The European Union needs to start talking about peace so that we can convince [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky that peace is in everybody’s interest and war is only in the interest of the 2,” said the Brazilian president.
On Sunday (16), Lula said in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) that the war was the fault of Ukraine and Russia.
“I think the building of the war was easier than it will be to get out of the war because the decision was made by 2 countries [Russia and Ukraine].’
‘And now, what are we trying to build? We are trying to build a group of countries without involvement in the war. Who doesn’t want war? Who wants to build peace in the world,” said Lula.
With information from Poder360