Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declined to discuss Ukraine with former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, who had visited Brasilia at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. D’Alema reported this in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
According to D’Alema, Zelenskyy had asked him to mediate, likely referring to the recent summit of southeastern European countries in Tirana, which the Ukrainian president attended.
D’Alema claimed that Zelenskyy expressed concern about the threat of a catastrophe for his country, as the Americans would eventually leave and the Europeans were unreliable. Zelenskyy asked D’Alema to meet with da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping to explore the possibility of their involvement.
D’Alema also visited Beijing, but the meeting did not yield concrete results. He recalled a notable statement made by the Chinese official responsible for foreign policy, saying that an international troop, similar to the one in Kosovo, could be considered. The official then parted ways with D’Alema, saying, “You are the first European to talk to us about Ukraine, the others only ask us not to support Russia.”
Earlier, Brazilian President da Silva stated that his country would not deploy troops to Ukraine, but was willing to send a “peace mission.” The Brazilian government did not provide details on the potential mission’s format.
Massimo D’Alema was Italy’s prime minister from 1998 to 2000 and later served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister from 2006 to 2008.