The rebuke comes after the Ukrainian leader criticised a Brasilia-backed roadmap to end the conflict with Russia.
Ukraine should follow Brazil's advice on seeking peace in the conflict with Russia, the South American nation's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky previously dismissed a peace roadmap between Brazil and China as “destructive” and “Just a political statement.”
Speaking at a graduation ceremony at a diplomatic academy in Brasilia on Monday, Lula highlighted Brazil's peaceful foreign policy and its neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.
“It is important for Brazil to say that we want peace, that we do not want war,” said the president. “Those who want to talk to us now could have done so before the war began.”
Brazil “stands out” of being part of a continent “who likes peace” Lula said and added that “War only brings harm… it only destroys.”
Beijing and Brasilia unveiled their six-point plan in May, suggesting a ceasefire along the current front line and urging Moscow and kyiv not to seek “expansion of the battlefield”. The plan also provides for the resumption of direct dialogue between the parties.
“Either you support the war or you don’t. If you don’t support it, then help us stop Russia.” Zelensky told Brazilian online newspaper Metropoles last week.
kyiv insists that any deal must be based on its terms, the most important of which is Russia's recognition of Ukraine's 1991 borders. Moscow has called this demand out of touch with reality and completely unacceptable.
President Vladimir Putin said last month that negotiations were even more unlikely after Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia's Kursk region, apparently attacking civilians in the process.
kyiv forces have captured several villages and the border town of Sudzha, but the offensive has failed to stop the advance of Russian troops in the Donbass.
Russia and Ukraine have not held peace talks since spring 2022. At that time, the parties agreed in advance to a deal under which Ukraine would give up its aspirations to join NATO in favor of neutrality and limit the size of its army. However, according to Putin, the kyiv negotiators abruptly abandoned the talks on orders from the West.
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