MADRID (Reuters) – Ukraine hopes to use Spain’s rotating EU presidency to try to “gain influence” in Latin America, where several countries have opposed Kyiv’s efforts to retake territory occupied by Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Spanish media.
Speaking on Friday on the eve of a visit by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as he kicks off the six-month rotating presidency, Zelenskiy said several unspecified countries had blocked an invitation extended to him by Sanchez to take part in an EU-Latin American summit in Brussels on July 17-18.
“We have a peace formula, and Pedro has supported us a lot. He has a constant dialogue with Latin America and they listen to him, it’s a fact. But I’ll say frankly that some Latin American countries are blocking the decision and this invitation,” he said in remarks from Kyiv aired by state broadcaster TVE.
“I want them not only to join the peace formula, but to stand against war,” he added.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva irritated Western countries earlier this year when he suggested the West had been “encouraging” war by arming Ukraine.
In the interview, Zelenskiy also asked for a concrete plan for his country to join NATO.
Ukraine has been working with allies to build broad international support for a peace blueprint without territorial compromises.
Senior officials from Ukraine, G7 countries, the EU and nations such as Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey met on Saturday in Denmark for talks on the concept, and said they had made some progress, but any summit to endorse a document was at least months away.
Ukrainian and Western officials aim to rally a broad coalition behind the Kyiv government – including major countries that have decided not to give Ukraine military aid or impose sanctions on Russia – to increase diplomatic pressure on Moscow.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and David Latona, writing by Andrei Khalip, Editing by Alistair Bell)
