Socialist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reportedly departed for an official visit to Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday in which local outlets report that he will once again pursue a mediator role between his hosts and Ukraine.
The formal occasion for which Lula will travel to the country is the celebration of “Victory Day,” in which Russia marks the end of the World War II with a massive parade and festivities praising the defunct Soviet Union. Russia claims nearly sole responsibility for defeating Nazi Germany, belittling the decisive contributions of the United States – which, unlike the Soviet Union, still exists.
Brazil declared war on Nazi Germany and was an active participant in hostilities against the Axis powers. Brasilia claims an especially decisive role in defeating fascist Italy and remains today the first nation to speak at the United Nations General Assembly’s general debate in part due to its role as a founding member of the organization.
The Russian government stated this week that it expects 29 foreign heads of state, in addition to strongman Vladimir Putin, to attend the parade this week, most prominent among them Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
Lula will be attending as a guest and is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin. Among the overt topics of discussion are their mutual membership in BRICS – an anti-American coalition named after founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – given that Lula was unable to attend the last BRICS summit in Russia due to an emergency surgery. Lula is reportedly planning to visit China after his travel to Moscow for the same reason.
Brazilian outlets report, citing Brazilian government officials, that Lula is expected to use the opportunity to also elevate Brazil’s profile as a party to the ongoing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula, and dramatically escalated hostilities into a full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine has since counter-invaded parts of Russia and the conflict continues. The United States, under President Donald Trump, is currently mediating talks pursuing an end to the violence, but intransigence on the part of the Russian government has stalled those discussions, according to Trump.
Flashback/Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) listens to his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during their meeting in Moscow, 18 October 2005. (YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images)
The Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported, citing “interlocutors of the Brazilian government,” that Lula’s administration views the sluggish progress of the American-led talks as an opportunity for Brazil to assume an important place at the negotiating table. His visit to Moscow, it reported, “has a double objective … attempting to place Brazil as a mediator of peace in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”
“The expectation,” the newspaper detailed, “is that Lula will tell Putin that Brazil has the credentials to actively participate in the mediation of a peace agreement between the Russians and Ukrainians.”
Brazil currently holds the presidency of BRICS, a position it may attempt to leverage in the Ukraine situation. It will also not compete at the Victory Day celebrations for attention against any relevant Western leaders, including Trump or European Union leaders, potentially creating an opening for Lula to make his case.
The sources speaking to O Globo conceded that, despite Lula’s animosity personally towards Trump, Brasilia recognizes the United States entering discussions as “the main incentive” for any progress towards peace to have occurred in the past year.
A major impediment to Brazil mediating Ukraine talks is its poor relationship with Ukraine – and Lula’s deplorable personal relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Lula returned to power for a third term in the presidency in January 2023 and almost immediately began demanding a leadership position in the Ukraine conflict.
“If I can help, I will help. But if the need arises to hold talks with Putin and Zelensky, I will be ready to discuss peace settlement efforts, no problem,” Lula declared. ” What we really need is to bring together a group of people powerful enough to be respected at the negotiating table.”
Months prior, however – while Lula was still campaigning against then-President Jair Bolsonaro – the current president openly mocked Zelensky in an interview with Time magazine.
“You are encouraging this guy [Zelensky], and then he thinks he is the cherry on your cake,” Lula complained, referring to Western powers. “We should be having a serious conversation. OK, you were a nice comedian. But let us not make war for you to show up on TV.”
Prior to becoming president of Ukraine in 2019, Zelensky did not have any political experience and was best known in the country as the lead actor in the sitcom Servant of the People, in which he played a schoolteacher inadvertently elected president of Ukraine.
O Globo noted in its coverage that Ukrainian Ambassador to Brasilia Adrii Melnyk invited Lula to Kyiv a week before the Moscow trip, but could not schedule a visit with Lula himself and had to convey the invitation through Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. Melnyk is one of Ukraine’s most experienced diplomats, sent to Brazil because of Kyiv’s poor relations with Brasilia.
In an interview with Ukraine’s RBC News Service on Monday, Melnyk described Brasil as an “unfriendly political environment” and confessed that he had initially tried to get out of the job when named ambassador to the country.
“The sad conclusion is that we have missed and lost so much here in the last twenty years that it will be almost impossible to make up for this gap in political mentality,” Melnyk lamented.
“This Brazilian train has run so fast in the opposite direction from Ukraine, towards the new matrix of the Global South, but what is especially painful, there has been a radical tilt towards Russia at the same time,” he detailed. “I mean not only the current leftist government, but the entire political elite in general, does not see any benefit in developing relations with Ukraine.”
The Brazilian outlet Metropoles reported this week that Ukraine perceives Lula’s visit to Moscow as a “hostile act” and “Kyiv is considering downgrading diplomatic relations” with the country.
Russia also has reason to doubt the Brazilian government’s diplomatic skill. Far from mediating between enemies, Rio de Janeiro was tasked with hosting a BRICS foreign minister summit last week. The parties failed to agree to sign a joint statement – an act that many observers considered a foregone conclusion given the anti-American group’s opposition to President Trump’s foreign policy. Instead, the meeting descended into discord as newer BRICS members Egypt and Ethiopia reportedly rejected attempts to include in the joint statement a call for Brazil, South Africa, and India to hold permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.
Putin has openly suggested that talks with Ukraine could include third party mediators, but recommended the dysfunctional and repressive atheist monarchy in North Korea to play the role over Brazil.
