Lula signals Putin that he is not isolated in the world by war, says former UN leader

The position of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in not openly condemning Russia for the war against Ukraine reveals a contradiction in his own speech, and ends up signaling a position of advantage to Vladimir Putin.

This is what Sergio Jaramillo, former leader of the United Nations High Commissioner for Peace, who today leads the movement “Hold on, Ukraine”, a campaign that brings together artists, politicians and intellectuals from various Latin American countries to call for peace.

Jamarillo says that he sees in Brazil a contradiction between Lula and the PT itself on the war, in which they try to promote a “multipolar world” that is not clear in the country’s foreign policy.

“The PT should have more sympathy for the Ukrainian victims. It’s impossible that they don’t know that, [a ex-presidente] Dilma Rousseff and others were tortured,” he said in an interview with Newspaper published this Friday (21).

Lula prolongs war in Ukraine, says activist

According to him, Brazil’s position of not strongly asserting against the war gives Putin an advantage, who does not see himself isolated from the world even with all the sanctions imposed on him, and that the invasion “will only end when the Kremlin realizes that all doors are closed”.

“But what Brazil and South Africa are doing is opening a very big door, giving space to Putin. It convinces him that he is not alone, it reinforces his delusional theories that the problem is the West, not its criminal invasion, it prolongs the war and makes peace impossible,” he emphasized.

The former UN peace leader lost a friend and was injured late last month when their restaurant in the city of Kramatorsk was hit by a Russian missile. Ten people died and more than 60 were injured in the attack.

“It was terrible, and it is in her name that I ask the government of Brazil to review its policy regarding Russia and the invasion, because the only thing it is achieving is prolonging the war and pushing peace away,” he added.

Jamarillo says he agrees with Lula’s defense of a “multipolar world”, which is more open, but claims that the president is passing on the opposite thought. “The foreign policy he promotes has been contradicting this belief. After all, what Putin is doing is the opposite: he is imposing a world in which whoever has the most power dominates everything,” he added.

Since the beginning of the new government, Lula has been giving different positions on Russia’s war against Ukraine. In general, he does not condemn Putin for the invasion and went so far as to equalize “responsibility” for the conflict, equating invaded with invader.

After much criticism, he started to promote what would be a “peace club” to negotiate an end to the conflict. More recently, however, he has been embroiled in a row with Chilean President Gabriel Boric for failing to advocate at the European Union-Celac Summit a scathing condemnation of Putin in the meeting’s final document.