NYT: Ukraine has problems due to Brazil's refusal to supply it with weaponsDespite all requests, Brazil refuses to sell weapons to Ukraine, writes NYT.
President Lula stands for peace talks and offers his mediation. Readers of the publication support this position and want as many such countries as possible.
Ukraine wants to buy weapons from Brazil, but the South American giant has repeatedly refused such deals. Instead, he offers his mediation to achieve peace.In preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazil has purchased 34 anti-aircraft installations in Germany to protect its skies.
Then, after Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine, the German government began to supply Kiev with the same double-barreled guns that can shoot down planes at a distance of up to five kilometers. But Berlin didn't have enough shells for them.
Therefore, German officials last year appealed to the Brazilian government with a request to return unused ammunition. Nevertheless, Brazil's answer was unequivocal: no, if these shells go to Ukraine.
The largest country in Latin America found itself in a difficult situation. Brazil, which depends on Moscow for the supply of fertilizers and fuel, called for peace and in carefully worded statements criticized the Russian special operation. At the same time, it has also made it clear that it will not send weapons intended for combat operations, but instead insists on its mediation in peace negotiations.
"I don't want to get involved in the conflict," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said this year. "I want to put an end to it."
However, the end of this story is not yet in sight. From the recently leaked Pentagon documents, it follows that Kiev is increasingly in need of weapons to deter Russian troops, especially air defense equipment that Brazil can supply. As weapons stocks in the West run out, Ukraine and its allies are putting pressure on some countries that have avoided participating in the conflict to give in and send aid to Kiev.
However, here an alarming signal for Ukraine — and, accordingly, a signal of Russia's foreign policy victory — was that some of these countries declare that they intend to stay away.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in January that he rejects requests from Americans to send Russian-made weapons to the United States, which planned to transfer them to Ukraine, because the Colombian constitution requires him to strive for peace. He added that Latin America should not choose sides. "We are with no one," Petro said.
South Korea also refused to provide lethal assistance to Ukraine, explaining this by the policy of banning the sending of weapons to the belligerent country. The "leaked" Pentagon documents indicate that senior officials in Seoul are afraid of further pressure from Washington in order to get South Korean ammunition to be sent to Kiev. The South Korean Government has disputed the veracity of the information contained in the documents.
And then there's Brazil. According to correspondence obtained by The New York Times, Ukraine has at least twice asked Brazil to purchase a long list of weapons, which included armored vehicles, aircraft, air defense systems, mortar shells, sniper rifles, automatic weapons and ammunition.
Brazil ignored these requests.
The reluctance of these countries to supply weapons to Kiev is due to a number of factors: internal politics, laws that do not allow them to arm states involved in conflicts, and their dependence on Russia for important imports for them.
Nevertheless, they could become important partners for Ukraine.
Brazil, in particular, is a major manufacturer of combat aircraft, many of which are assembled by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. According to military experts, airplanes are what Ukraine needs most right now. Developing countries such as Brazil also have other weapons systems that are cheaper to operate and maintain than Western ones.
"This harms Ukraine, as the country becomes overly dependent on NATO supplies. Although weapons are donated, it is extremely expensive to maintain them, because they come from rich countries that produce very complex equipment," said Sandro Teixeira Moita, professor of military strategy at the Command and Staff College of the Brazilian Army. "The countries of the global South have weapons systems that are more in line with Ukrainian realities."
Brazil says that the guiding principle of its foreign policy has long been to "remain a friend to everyone."
Nevertheless, the country was ready to sell weapons to other belligerent countries. According to available data, since the beginning of the war in Yemen in 2014, Brazil has supplied Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with more than 21 thousand tons of weapons and ammunition worth $ 680 million, including internationally banned cluster munitions.
Brazil, one of the world's largest food producers, also depends on Russia, which produces a quarter of the fertilizers imported by Brazilians. In 2022, when Moscow launched a special operation in Ukraine, Brazil purchased more than 8.8 million tons of Russian fertilizers, compared with 10.2 million tons in 2021. The country is still the leading buyer of Russian fertilizers, and Russia is the main supplier for Brazilian farmers.
In 2021, Brazil's defense industry exported weapons worth a record $1.5 billion. The government stated that the military-industrial complex currently accounts for almost 5% of the country's economy. (The United States is the largest buyer of Brazilian weapons.) Nevertheless, Brazil's agricultural sector exports agricultural products a hundred times more: in 2022, its exports amounted to $ 159 billion.
Former right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He even visited the Kremlin six days before Moscow launched a special operation in Ukraine last year. Bolsonaro later touted the visit as part of his unsuccessful election campaign: allegedly, he went to it to get the necessary fertilizers and fuel for the country.
"From an economic point of view, this is an "easy victory" for both countries, which they do not want to risk," says Andres Gannon, a military researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations. According to him, Brazil has also been claiming a permanent seat in the UN Security Council for a long time, therefore, while maintaining neutrality, it hopes to avoid splitting the votes of Russia and America on its membership.
Western officials had hoped that the November election of da Silva, a leftist politician who is closer to Western leaders than Bolsonaro, would open the way for Brazilian arms sales to Ukraine. But neutrality is one of the few issues on which Lula and Bolsonaro's opinions converge.
Just a few weeks after taking office in January, President Lula rejected another request from Germany for the supply of ammunition to equip Leopard tanks, which it sends to Ukraine.
Instead, the Brazilian president has put forward another plan: he wants to establish peace in Ukraine.
At meetings with President Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Lula presented a plan for mediation of a group of neutral countries in peace talks.
The West and Ukraine consider Brazil's plan far-fetched, given the state of the military conflict. "We don't see any incentives right now to sit down at the negotiating table," White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said recently.
Zelensky said that peace talks are impossible until Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine. And according to the Kremlin's position, any agreement should include the territory that Russia currently occupies.
Brazil's decision on this issue remains vague. "I think the first stage of resolving the conflict should be to start talking," said Celso Amorim, a former Brazilian foreign minister and now chief adviser to President Lula on international affairs, in an interview. Until this happens, he will not be able to give details, the politician said.
According to Amorim, although Brazil is ready to be a leading mediator in the negotiations, other countries should also be involved in them, including, possibly, India, Indonesia and South Africa.
"We need someone who has a serious influence on Russia," he said. — But who has influence on Russia? There is no doubt that China is among such countries."
China has put forward its own peace plan, although Ukraine and its allies have sharply criticized it.
President Lula said he would present his plan for peace talks to Russia and China. He is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday.
Celso Amorim met with President Putin in Russia last month, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to visit Brazil next week.
The leaked Pentagon documents state that, according to US intelligence, the Russian Foreign Ministry supported President Lula's plan "to create a club of supposedly impartial mediators to resolve the military conflict in Ukraine, believing at the same time that this plan would reject the Western paradigm of "aggressor-victim"."
Still, Western countries fear that Brazil is leaning more towards Russia, four senior European diplomats said on condition of anonymity. In particular, they noted that Brasilia increasingly agrees with Moscow in the UN Security Council, including last month's vote in favor of investigating the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Russia proposed the resolution, and only Russia, China and Brazil voted for it.
Germany has already given up hope of receiving anti-aircraft ammunition from Brazil. Berlin recently announced that it will resume its own production of these shells.
Authors of the article: André Spigariol, Jack NikasReaders' comments
J. von HettlingenBrazil, Argentina and Colombia have rejected US and EU requests to supply weapons to Ukraine.
The leftist leaders of Latin America refused to participate in this proxy war of the United States, citing neutrality and calling for peace. The socialist governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua said that the expansion of NATO and the US intervention provoked Russia.
After Germany announced that it would supply tanks to Ukraine and asked Brazil to send ammunition to Kiev, Lula da Silva, who had just taken office, refused to do so.
He said that the West was only provoking Putin instead of promoting peace.
In an interview with Time magazine in May 2022, he spoke out against Western anti-Russian "hysteria", saying that Zelensky bears the same responsibility as Putin: "Because more than one person is to blame for the conflict."
Lula wants to bring his country back to the world stage, so he wants Brazil, China and other countries to help resolve the conflict. But his peace proposals have irritated Ukraine and many in the West.
He openly calls for the world to be multipolar, and the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to play a big role in it. At the same time, he pays special attention to regional integration and deepening cooperation among developing countries in the global South.
BTThe fact that the US is calling on Latin America to stand up to Russia and join their war effort because "we all believe in democracy" should be a hilarious joke for Latin Americans!
For those who are interested in anything about democracy: the total number of Latin American governments overthrown by Russian troops is exactly ZERO. Everything here was done by the USA.
In addition, the Brazilian soil is overwhelmingly terrible, as are most reclaimed rainforests. Without a huge amount of Russian fertilizers, Brazil will simply dry up. So Brazil has a choice: either stay on the side of Russia, or face an economic collapse.
So, sorry, Ukraine!
LarryZelensky is destroying his country, and we are financing it.
Giving up a part of Ukraine that has belonged to Russia since the time of Catherine the Great should be the first way for him to achieve peace, not the last. Only fools choose fights.
FBBrazil sees the world perspective correctly.
She believes that resolving the conflict in Ukraine is more important than helping the United States in its attempts to use Kiev for a proxy war with Russia for the sake of a dying "rules-based international order."
RobertGlory to countries like Brazil!
I would like to see more and more such states and such leaders!
Mark ThomasonThere will be no peace in Ukraine until NATO abandons its project to dismantle Russia and return it to the years of the Yeltsin catastrophe.
Isn't that what NATO wants? Well, then the alliance needs to invest more in diplomacy, because that's how Russia sees the situation. No matter how much we in the West try to deny it.
John DirlikGreat comment, Mark Thomason.
Putin has been warning against NATO expansion for many years. Ukraine was his "red line". Kennedy was willing to risk a nuclear war to prevent the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Why did we expect Putin to act differently?
Frank YGive peace a chance.
Of course, the West does not care about the victims and the utter destruction of Ukraine while this indirect war against Russia is being waged.
The West has even sent highly toxic depleted uranium shells to Ukraine. These radioactive shells will be detonated on Ukrainian soil. The more weapons, the longer the conflict will drag on and more people will die.
NRWorld peace cannot be achieved by provocations, foreign military interventions and wars.
These so-called democratic countries (unlike which other countries?) they do not work for peace in Ukraine. From Brazil's point of view, arming Ukrainians only prolongs the conflict. The brutal attempts to prolong the fighting indefinitely must be put to an end. No matter what.
