President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time the importance of the withdrawal of Russian troops for peace in Ukraine — then proceeded to add his usual caveats on the issue.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels after a summit between the EU and the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states (CELAC), Lula said that “the withdrawal is part of the peace agreement.” Lula reminded reporters that Brazil voted earlier this year in favor of a UN resolution demanding that Russia immediately withdraw all its military forces from Ukraine.
Although Brazil did vote in favor of the resolution, Lula himself and his top diplomats Mauro Vieira and Celso Amorim never publicly emphasized the withdrawal of Russian troops, instead pushing for peace negotiations without naming preconditions.
Lula reiterated that point today: “We need to build a group of countries capable of, in the right moment, convincing Russia and Ukraine that peace is the best path.”
“What we want is for the war to stop,” he added.
Since taking office on January 1, Lula has tried to play both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, changing the focus of his message depending on the audience. Nevertheless, he has more often echoed Russian talking points.
Lula’s position has earned him public compliments from Russia and criticism from Ukraine. During a visit to Brasília in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thanked Brazil for what he called its “contribution” to resolving the war in Ukraine. Conversely, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Lula wanted to be “original” in his peace proposal, but did not find time to meet with him at the G7 meeting in Japan.
In May, Mr. Zelensky said he told Mr. Amorim, Brazil’s special foreign policy adviser, that “the only plan capable of stopping Russian aggression in Ukraine is the Ukrainian Peace Formula.” The “formula”, a ten-point plan, includes the withdrawal of Russian troops, a point Mr. Amorim never emphasized.
“The world is beginning to get tired [of the war],” Lula added today. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, has written that Russian statements expressing a willingness to negotiate are “part of an ongoing information operation intending to weaken Western willingness to aid Ukraine.”
Lula said that, “for the first time,” he’s “very optimistic” about concluding the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement by the end of the year, adding that “in two to three weeks” Mercosur members will present their counter-proposal to EU negotiators.
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