Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is anything but inexperienced in international relations, but even so, the Brazilian president suffered a striking setback when he proposed that Ukraine agree to cede the Crimean peninsula to Russia to stop the war that has been going on for more than one year since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
"Putin cannot keep the territory of Ukraine. Crimea may be discussed. But what he invaded again, he has to rethink. Zelenski cannot want it all either," declared the 77-year-old Brazilian head of state during a breakfast with journalists in Brasilia in which he criticized the United States and the European Union (EU) for their role in the conflict. This Friday, kyiv's reaction was forceful.
Ukraine "does not trade with its territories," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. "Ukraine appreciates the effort of the Brazilian president to find a solution to put an end to Russian aggression," the spokesman added. "There is no legal, political or moral reason why we should give up a single inch of Ukrainian territory (...). Any mediation effort to restore peace in Ukraine must be based on respect for sovereignty and full recovery of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, following the principles of the UN Charter".
Lula's proposal, made indirectly and informally on an extremely sensitive issue, is striking, because the Brazilian president's primary objective is to play a role in ending the war. Together with China and other countries, Brazil is working on a mediation proposal, but even before it materializes, Brasilia achieved a public rejection from kyiv. Lula flies to Beijing this Tuesday for a state visit.
"The world needs calm," insisted Lula, who became president of Brazil on January 1 of this year for the third time. "We need to find a solution (to the war)," she added.
In the atmosphere of trust that is created at a president's breakfast with the journalists who regularly follow his activity, Lula went a long way in his analysis of what is happening - and why it is happening - in Ukraine. During the conversation at the Planalto Palace, the leader of the leftist Workers' Party (PT) believes that there was a strategic error on the part of the developed countries.
"Brazil defends the territorial integrity of each nation. We do not agree with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now, we think that the developed world, especially the European Union and the United States, could not have agreed to enter the war in the way that that they did it, quickly, without first spending a lot of time trying to negotiate. And negotiating peace is very complicated."
"The war has started and someone has to stop it. The two (warring countries) will not take the initiative to stop it. Someone from the outside has to help. I am convinced that both Ukraine and Russia are waiting for someone from the outside (...) Peace is more complicated than war. War is a crazy desire, but war must be built," he added.
It is not the first time that Lula has had tensions with the kyiv government when talking about the war in Ukraine. In 2022, when he was still a candidate for the presidency, the Brazilian told Time magazine that Zelensky was as guilty as Russian President Vladimir Putin for sparking the conflict. And he went further: the Ukrainian president is, in his vision, "a bit strange, because he seems to be part of the show."
The Ukrainian embassy in Brasilia reacted with harsh laconicism: Lula was "misinformed" about what is happening in Ukraine.
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