Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told reporters at the White House he thinks world leaders should create a coalition aimed at ending the war in Ukraine — and that he expressed the idea to US President Joe Biden during their meeting at the White House Friday.
Lula said he’d also mentioned the idea to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
He suggested the world leaders “create a group of countries that are not involved directly in the war between Ukraine and Russia, so that we can find a possibility for us to build peace,” Lula said Friday. “I am convinced that it’s necessary to find a way out, to put an end to this war. And I felt from the side of President Biden the same concern.”
In an interview with us.mistertruth.com Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour Friday, Lula said if a country is invaded, “of course it has the right to defend itself,” but that he wants to “fix the error” Russia made.
“I don’t want to join the war,” the Brazilian leader said. “I want to end the war.”
Lula has sought to be a global statesman who could broker a truce between Russia and Ukraine, telling CNN that he began this work by speaking to Scholz, who visited Brazil in January.
Lula reiterated that hope Friday evening, telling reporters he’d like to see, “a partnership capable of building a group of negotiators which both sides believe in.”
What the US is saying: The Biden administration has repeatedly deferred to Ukraine on the decision to open peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Pressed on Lula’s earlier comments around Ukraine during Friday’s press briefing, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that while the administration “would like to see this war end today,” Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure would appear to belie that hope.
“We’re going to have to stay at the task of supporting Ukraine so it can succeed at the battlefield, so that if and when president Zelensky has determined it’s time to negotiate and sit down at the table to solve this diplomatically, he can do it with the wind at his back,” Kirby said. “So, it’s really up to President Zelensky to determine if and when negotiations are appropriate.”