“We don’t know what’s going through their heads”

2023-06-24 00:30:26

the president of brazilLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva, He unleashed controversy again with some statements about the war between Russia and Ukraine in which he seemed to put the occupying country and the invaded country on the same level.

“We don’t know what’s going through their heads, but both (referring to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian, Volodimir Zelenski) think they want to win, and while people are dying,” said the Brazilian president, who insisted on present a peace proposal for the war that has been going on for almost a year and a half.

Lula announced this Friday in Rome that he will send the head of the Special Advisory Office of the Presidency of the Republic for International Affairs, Celso Amorim, to Copenhagen to meet with other countries in search of a solution to the war in Ukraine and reiterated his position that peace will not be achieved if Moscow and kyiv do not cede something and they sit down to talk.

This meeting has not been officially announced but, according to the Financial Timesthe White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet in Copenhagen with officials from countries considered “neutral” such as Brazil, India and South Africa to seek solutions to the war.

In a press conference at the end of his visit to Italy and the Vatican, Lula explained that in his meetings in Rome and with Pope Francis he had talked a lot about the war in Ukraine and the need for them to sit down at a negotiating table. .

Lula was in Paris this Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, at a summit on Climate Change. Photo: EFE

“We don’t know what’s going through their heads, but both (Putin and Zelensky) think they want to win, and while people are dying,” Lula said.

Thus, he seemed to ignore that it was Russia that launched the invasion in February of last year and seemed to put kyiv and Moscow on the same level.

Phrases and controversies

Just over a month ago, the Brazilian president had already unleashed a barrage of criticism and a harsh response from Ukraine when he said that Zelensky was “as responsible” for the war as Putin.

Kiev was quick to reply: “It’s simple: Russia has treacherously attacked Ukraine. The war is only on the territory of Ukraine, Russia is massively killing civilians. Classic war of destruction and occupation,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, one of the main advisers to the Ukrainian president.

The president of Brazil was received this week by Pope Francis at the Vatican. Photo: AFP

Before that, in April, Lula had already upset Ukraine when he said kyiv should give up the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, to stop the war.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry then came out to refute that the country “does not trade with its territories.”

This Thursday, in Rome, the Brazilian president stressed that Brazil has always condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine“but now you have to choose who will be the actors, the people with authority to find a way out because you can’t wait for Christmas, winter, carnival…”

About the UN Security Council

And he lamented that “it is fashionable for the permanent members of the UN Security Council to invade other” countries.

To discuss the war in Ukraine, he explained, the United States and Europe “who are involved” cannot do it, adding that “the time has come to renew the UN Security Council” where “the United States, which has invaded Iraq,” and that “it is necessary for countries like India or Mexico or Japan to enter.

Regarding a possible peace agreement, he stressed that “it cannot be a surrender by anyone” and neither is it an agreement “in which one wins 50% and the other 20%” because “it cannot be an imposition.”

“Only they know what is necessary,” he added, and therefore it is urgent that the bombs stop and they sit down to talk, he argued.

Regarding Francis, with whom he held a meeting this Wednesday in full harmony, he explained that he has no hesitation in stating that “today the Pope is the greatest political authority on Earth” and “not only because of what he represents but because of his position and because of what he says”.

No one accepts the new cold war that the United States and China are waging anymore. Nobody wants war anymore. I talked a lot about the war and I agree with the Pope that there must be people discussing peace, Lula said, insisting that it is not fair to spend billions on war when there are 800 million people who are starving.

Source: EFE and Clarion

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