Lula admits he has no peace plan for Ukraine

After stating for more than two months that he intends to create a “Peace Club” to resolve the war in Ukraine, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva admitted that he does not have a plan to deal with the conflict. The statement was made in an interview with the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Friday (14).

The PT also reversed the roles of the attacked and the aggressor and hinted that it is Ukraine that is attacking Russia. In February 2022, more than 200,000 Russian fighters invaded Ukraine and, to this day, at least four provinces are illegally invaded.

Before the trip to China, government sources claimed that Lula’s “Peace Club” proposal was on the agenda for the Brazilian’s meeting with communist leader Xi Jinping. However, after the end of the meeting, nothing practical was disclosed on the subject.

“I don’t have a specific plan. I haven’t produced anything. The proposal will come out of many conversations between many people,” Lula told an interviewer when asked what exactly he wanted to propose to China about peace in Ukraine.

Lula started talking about his idea for the Peace Club in mid-February, during a visit to US President Joe Biden. At the time, she did not receive much attention from Washington on the matter. French President Emmanuel Macron was practically the only major leader to openly support Lula, however, only through a message on Twitter.

President wanted to discuss peace until the beer bottles run out

Last year Lula went so far as to state that: “the reason for this war, from everything I understand, what I read and what I hear, would be resolved here in Brazil at a table drinking beer”, he said in March, at an event in State University of Rio de Janeiro.

“It would have been resolved here, if not in the first beer, in the second; if not in the second, in the third; if not in the third, until the bottles ran out we would make a peace agreement”, Lula said at the time.

Lula criticizes sending weapons to defend Ukraine

“Everyone is just talking about giving Ukraine more weapons to attack Russia or NATO. [aliança militar ocidental] put the border on Russian territory, so we need to find countries that want peace,” Lula told CCTV.

The PT’s statement is in line with the disinformation campaign that Moscow has launched as part of its war effort. The Kremlin has claimed since the beginning of the conflict that its troops invaded Ukraine because the country intended to apply for NATO membership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been claiming, at least since 2021, in a distorted view of history, that Russia would be entitled to claim Ukrainian territory as it considers it its natural area of ​​influence. Moscow disclosed, without any justification, that Ukraine would cede its territory for the installation of missiles destined to reach Russian territory.

In February 2022, Kremlin troops tried to take the Ukrainian capital Kyiv without Russian territory or military having been attacked or even threatened. NATO member countries then began to provide financial resources and weapons in large quantities for the defense of the Ukrainian population.

Lula reversed the roles and stated that these resources were used to attack Russia. But the only few Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory have not used weapons or been jointly planned with NATO.

Virtually all Western weapons are being used to defend the population and territory of Ukraine. The main example is anti-aircraft defense batteries that are being used to intercept Russian missiles and drones that have systematically hit electrical infrastructure and civilian targets.

Lula accuses Germany of asking to buy missiles from Brazil

“The European Union has always been a balance point. It never participated. It has now entered directly into the conflict. When comrade Olaf Scholz [chanceler alemão] went to Brazil to ask Brazil to sell missiles so he could deliver them to Ukraine I said I would not sell the missiles because Brazil does not want to enter the war,” Lula told CCTV.

So far, such a request has never been confirmed by either Brazil or Germany. Lula may have been mistaken or distorted the information. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian government has been asking Brazil to send 35 mm anti-aircraft gun ammunition free of charge for use in German-made Gepard armored vehicles, which both Ukraine and Brazil have.

As it is a very old armored vehicle and already out of use in Germany, only a few countries have significant stocks of this type of ammunition, including Brazil and Switzerland. They were used to protect Ukrainian troops in the September 2022 counter-offensive and later began to be used in the defense of Ukrainian cities against Russian drones and missiles.

Brazil systematically ignored Ukrainian requests, even when Scholz reinforced the request. However, until today there is no news that Germany has made any request to Brazil for the purchase of missiles, which are generally weapons of an offensive nature – different from the ammunition of Gepard. Brazilian missile production is considered very limited by military analysts.

“Leaders don’t have the right to wage war when the world is in need of peace,” Lula told Chinese television. Beijing does not supply Russia with weapons, but it has been buying oil products and selling manufactured items to Russia amid Western economic sanctions. Aid practically saved the Russian economy from the start of the war. The two countries claim to have a “partnership without limits”.

Lula made the statements in a context of criticism of NATO, which is led in practice by the United States, today China’s main geopolitical rival. In the same interview, the PT member was full of praise for Beijing and asked for money for investments in infrastructure in Brazil. The Brazilian government claims to have signed agreements estimated at BRL 50 billion, but without disclosing the specific destination of all the resources.