Reuters: Brazilian president cuts off G20 discussion on war in Ukraine, angering Europeans

European delegates at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro were outraged by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaʼs decision to issue a communique a day early to stop discussion of the war in Ukraine.

Reuters writes about this with reference to sources.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he regretted that the G20 communique did not emphasize Russiaʼs responsibility for launching a full-scale war against Ukraine, especially on its 1,000th day.

"It is too little when the G20 cannot find the words to understand that Russia is responsible... It is becoming clear how much geopolitical tensions are also affecting the G20," he concluded.

Formulating a position on the Russian Federationʼs war against Ukraine has been difficult at G20 meetings since the beginning of the invasion. Usually the communique is published at the end of the summit, but Lula da Silva decided to approve the text at the end of the plenary session on November 18.

"The communiqué was closed by President Lula. It did not correspond to the position we could have," commented French President Emmanuel Macron.

A European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, called Lulaʼs maneuver "brutal," but his country decided to respect the prerogative of the summit host to decide when to issue a joint statement.

Diplomats agreed on the communique in the early morning of November 17 after intense negotiations, but that day France and Germany began pressuring Brazil to change the text amid massive Russian shelling of Ukraine that day. Brazil refused.

Brazil and Russiaʼs war against Ukraine

In an interview with TIME in May 2022, Lula da Silva said that not only Putin is to blame for Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine, but also the United States, the EU, and Zelensky. He said that Ukraine should have abandoned the path to the EU and NATO, and instead negotiated with Russia.

The president of Brazil also offered to hand over the occupied Crimea to Russia in order to stop its war against Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine replied that there is no reason to cede their lands. Later, he noted that the US should stop "encouraging war" in Ukraine and "start talking about peace."

In early 2023, Lula da Silva refused to hand over Gepard anti-aircraft shells to Ukraine, and later said he wanted to mediate between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

However, in June 2023, the Brazilian president condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before that, he took a neutral position and said that he did not want to choose a side in the war, but wanted to remain on the "side of peace."

A year later, in June 2024, Lula da Silva refused to come to the Peace Summit organized by Ukraine. He said that Brazil will participate in the peace discussion only when "the two conflicting parties sit down at the same table." Brazil was represented as an observer by the countryʼs ambassador to Switzerland, Claudia Fonseca Buzzi. The country did not sign the communiqué.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.