Brazil's president condemns war in Ukraine after US criticizes his statements about "encouraging war"

This is reported by Reuters.

On Tuesday, April 18, during a meeting with the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, Lula da Silva condemned Russia's violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity. He also called on the international community to mediate to end the war.

The comments came after Lula da Silva drew criticism from Western allies, saying the US was dragging out hostilities by supplying arms to Ukraine and encouraging war.

Officials in Washington said that they had privately made it clear to their Brazilian counterparts that the Biden administration was unhappy with Lula's criticism of Ukraine's arms policy.

The White House reported that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had a conversation with his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim. He said that criticism of the US is "absurd", and official Rio does not share Russia's position in this war.

• Before that, the Brazilian President accused Putin and Zelenskyy of not taking steps for reconciliation and said that it was necessary to create an analogue of the G20 to end the war in Ukraine. According to him, he has already discussed this possibility with some states.

• The Brazilian leader also stressed that the US should stop "encouraging war" on the territory of Ukraine and "start talking about peace." The White House reacted to this, stating that in this case Brazil is repeating Russian and Chinese propaganda, without considering the facts. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko called on the Brazilian president to visit Ukraine and stated that Kyiv is watching with interest his efforts to find a solution to end the war.