By Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio&nbsp;Lula&nbsp;da Silva on Tuesday condemned the violation of&nbsp;Ukraine's territorial integrity by Russia and again called for mediation to end the war, a&nbsp;peace&nbsp;initiative&nbsp;that was criticized by the Ukrainian government.
Speaking at a lunch with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis,&nbsp;Lula&nbsp;said a group of neutral nations must come together to help broker&nbsp;peace&nbsp;between Russia and&nbsp;Ukraine.
His comments came after he set off a storm among Western allies by stating over the weekend that they were prolonging the fighting by supplying arms to&nbsp;Ukraine.
A White House spokesperson accused&nbsp;Lula&nbsp;of "parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without looking at the facts." And on Tuesday, the White House said&nbsp;Lula's "tone was not one of neutrality."
In Washington, a person familiar with the matter said U.S. officials have privately made clear the Biden administration's displeasure to Brazilian counterparts about&nbsp;Lula's criticism of the arming of&nbsp;Ukraine.
The White House did not immediately reply to a Reuters question on the purported contacts but late on Tuesday said in a statement that Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had spoken with his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, about "a number of bilateral and global issues, including Russia&rsquo;s war against&nbsp;Ukraine."
Earlier, Amorim had joined the war of words, calling the U.S. criticism "absurd" and insisting that Brazil did not share Russia's position.
"Brazil defends the territorial integrity of&nbsp;Ukraine," Amorim told Globo TV. But he added: "As long as there are no talks, the ideal&nbsp;peace&nbsp;for the Ukrainians and the Russians will not happen. There must be concessions."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited&nbsp;Lula&nbsp;in Brasilia on Monday and thanked him for his&nbsp;peace&nbsp;efforts, remarking that Brazil and Russia shared views on the year-old conflict in&nbsp;Ukraine.
Lula&nbsp;has pitched himself as a&nbsp;peace&nbsp;broker to end the war, which began when Russia invaded the neighboring country in February 2022. His proposal, based on&nbsp;Brazil's&nbsp;tradition of non-intervention and neutrality, calls for a group of nations not involved in the war to engage both Russia and&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;in talks.
Ukraine&nbsp;has criticized&nbsp;Lula's proposal because it treats "the victim and the aggressor" the same way, and on Tuesday invited the Brazilian president to the war-torn country to see for himself the consequences of the Russian&nbsp;invasion.
Ukrainian Foreign&nbsp;Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;was following with interest&nbsp;Lula's efforts to find a solution to the war. But he rejected the view&nbsp;Lula&nbsp;expressed over the weekend that countries arming Kyiv were prolonging war.
The European Union has also rejected&nbsp;Lula's suggestion that both&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;and Russia are to blame for the war. EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said all aid was aimed at&nbsp;Ukraine's "legitimate defense."
Lula&nbsp;has said Russia should return territory it invaded last year, but he has suggested&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;might sacrifice Crimea, which was occupied by Russian forces in 2014, a suggestion rejected outright by Ukrainian President Volodymyr&nbsp;Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy has urged world leaders to adopt his 10-point&nbsp;peace&nbsp;plan which, besides calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops and a cessation of hostilities, proposes restoring&nbsp;Ukraine's original borders with Russia.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Brad Haynes, Cynthia Osterman and Lincoln Feast.)

you might like

Brazil's Lula condemns invasion of Ukraine, touts peace initiative