Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva on Saturday urged the U.S. to stop "encouraging" the war in Ukraine.
The White House rebuked Lula for his statement while Russia praised him for proposing peace talks.
- Lula told journalists that "the United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace."
- On Sunday, he reiterated his call for countries uninvolved in the Russo-Ukrainian war to help broker peace.
- The White House accused Lula of "parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without looking at the facts."
- White
House national security spokesperson John Kirby called the comments
"simply misguided," and rejected the suggestion that the U.S. and Europe
"share responsibility for the war."
- During a trip to Brasilia
on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is
"grateful" to Brazil for its "clear understanding of the genesis of the
situation."
- Brazil and China are attempting to position themselves as peace brokers between Russia and Ukraine.
- French President Emmanuel Macron is the only Western leader that has expressed support for Lula's peace initiative.
