Brazilian President Lula da Silva refused to speak to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during his two-hour stopover at Brasilia airport last Saturday night. The refusal is another episode in the rocky relationship between the two heads of state and reinforces what little sympathy Lula, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has for the Ukrainian whose country was invaded by Russian troops last February.
Zelensky asked Lula on Thursday Saturday when he stopped in the capital of Brazil on his way to Buenos Aires, the capital of neighboring Argentina, where he went to attend the inauguration of that country’s new president, Javier Miley. Lula did not even respond, and Itamarati, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this Monday, after the press discovered the incident, that the time between the request and the arrival of the Ukrainian was too short to prepare a meeting between the two heads of the two countries. state, adding that it was also unusual for two presidents to meet at the airport.
Vladimir Zelensky also stayed in Cape Verde, and on this occasion he had a meeting with the local Prime Minister Ulisses Correia, who met the Ukrainian at the airport without any problems or embarrassment. The Ukrainian president landed at Brasilia airport, where he was received by Brazilian diplomat Maria Luisa Escorel, at 20:15 and flew out again two hours later, with Lula, who was in the city, having no obligations.
Lula and Zelensky met for two and a half hours behind closed doors in New York last September for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in which they both participated and on which neither made any serious comments, implying the atmosphere was very tense. Prior to this, several requests by Zelensky to speak with Lula during other international events in various parts of the world were ignored or not followed through under the argument of a lack of agenda from the Brazilian, who has made critical comments about Ukraine and its European and European policies. North American allies, holding them all largely responsible for the war that Ukraine and Russia continue to wage.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal
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