By Belén Carreño
MADRID (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday called again for a “peace group” to broker an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, saying anything could be discussed once the nations sat down to talk peace.
“There are a lot of things to be discussed – Crimea, other territories, NATO,” Lula said during a trip to Spain when asked about Crimea. He said it was not up to him to say who owned Crimea. “That is a discussion between Russia and Ukraine.”
Lula spoke at a news conference alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a firm advocate of the European view that Ukraine is defending itself against Russian aggression.
Sanchez welcomed Lula’s explanation of his peace initiative, according to a joint statement, but told him Spain supported the 10-point peace plan of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that calls for Russian withdrawal from all invaded territory, including Crimea.
“I want to thank Lula for his involvement and interest in promoting a group of mediating countries to promote peace,” Sanchez told the news conference, adding they differed over “nuances” on the kind of peace sought.
Sanchez said a “just and lasting peace” would come only after the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.
Lula has pitched himself as a peace broker to end the war, which began when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. His proposal, based on Brazil’s tradition of non-intervention and neutrality, calls for a group of nations not involved in the war to engage both Russia and Ukraine in talks.
But he angered many in the West this month when he called for the United States and its European allies to stop supplying arms to Ukraine saying they were “prolonging” the war, prompting a White House spokesperson to accuse him of “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda”.
But after the backlash, the Brazilian leader modified his language and during his visit to Portugal and Spain has repeatedly condemned Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“I understand the European view of this war. It is unacceptable that one country invades another, but it is a war in which I do not see anyone talking about peace,” he said in a speech at a business conference in Madrid on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Belen Carreño and David Latona in Madrid, Lisandra Paraguassu and Gabriel Araujo in Brasilia; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
