Brazil’s Lula draws Russian praise, US scorn for Ukraine views
- A White House spokesman accused the leader of ‘parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda’, after the president called on the West to stop supplying arms to Kyiv
- Russia’s foreign minister, meanwhile, visited Brasilia and thanked Lula for his efforts to resolve the conflict
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva drew criticism from the United States or his recent comments suggesting the West had been “encouraging” war by arming Ukraine, while he was praised by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for his proposal for peace talks.
Lavrov, on a visit to Brasilia, met Lula and thanked Brazil for its efforts to resolve the conflict. But a White House spokesman on Monday accused Lula of “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without looking at the facts”.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, who also met with Lavrov, shot back later, saying: “I don’t know how or why he reached that conclusion but I do not agree at all”.
Lula has pitched himself as a broker for peace talks to end the Ukraine conflict, which began when Russia invaded the neighbouring country in February 2022. That proposal was based on Brazil’s tradition of non-intervention and open diplomacy.
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Brazil’s President Lula meets with Xi, seeks to expand trade, Chinese investments and talk Ukraine
But Lula has angered many in the West with comments over the weekend, when he called for Western powers to stop providing arms for the war. The comments came soon after he returned from China, where he discussed the matter with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
