Brazil, which received Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday, rejected US accusations of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of repeating Russian and Chinese propaganda about the war in Ukraine.
Lula's meeting with Lavrov in Brazil came in the wake of two state visits that the Brazilian president made to China and the UAE, during which he considered that “the United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace.”
He also saw that Ukraine shared responsibility for the outbreak of the war, which began with the Russian forces' invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Brazil represented a repetition of the positions of Moscow and Beijing in holding the West responsible for the war, which entered its second year. As for Beijing, it seeks to appear neutral in the conflict while maintaining its partnership with Russia and abstaining from condemning the war and joining Western sanctions against Moscow.
However, the position of the Brazilian president received harsh criticism from Washington, which is leading international efforts to support Ukraine and its attempt to isolate Russia against the background of the war.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, "Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without ever looking at the facts."
On his part, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, said on Monday that Lula's comments were "simply misguided" and missed the mark by "suggesting the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace, or that we share responsibility for the war."
On Tuesday, Ukraine, in turn, criticized Lula's statements, as a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, considered that the Brazilian president "equates the victim with the aggressor."
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