After the US, the European Union also criticizes Lula’s war talk

The European Union has rebutted the statements of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and denied contributing to prolonging the war in Ukraine.

Brazil’s president pointed to the United States and the EU as guilty of prolonging the conflict and that the battle decision would have been taken by “two countries”.

In a press conference, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano denied that the bloc’s actions had fueled the conflict and emphasized that Russia was the aggressor in this case.

“What we are doing is helping Ukraine exercise its legitimate right of self-defense,” he said.

“It is not true that the US and EU are helping to prolong the conflict. We have offered numerous possibilities to Russia for a negotiating agreement on civilized terms,” Stano said.

He also recalled that Brazil was part of the 143 countries that condemned the invasion of Ukraine and called for an end to hostilities within the United Nations environment.

The US government also reacted harshly to Lula’s remarks on Monday.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said Lula “reproduces Russian and Chinese propaganda.”

“It is deeply problematic how Brazil has approached this issue substantively and rhetorically, suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace or that we share responsibility for the war,” he said in a conversation with reporters.

Lula argued on Saturday, at the end of a visit to China, that the United States must stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and the European Union must “start talking about peace.”

“It is necessary that the US stop encouraging war and start talking about peace.”

“The European Union must start talking about peace so that we can convince Putin and Zelensky that peace interests everyone and war is only interesting, for now, to the two,” said Lula about the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine, Volodymir Zelensky.

With information from Gazeta Brasil