Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has refused to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, while departing from his government’s official stance at the United Nations to say Brazil would remain neutral.
In reference to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Bolsonaro said Ukrainians have “placed the hope of their nation in the hands of a comedian.”
At a press conference, Bolsonaro said he spoke for two hours with Putin. In a subsequent statement, the country’s foreign ministry said Bolsonaro did not speak with Putin on Sunday, but was instead referring to his conversation with the Russian leader in Moscow.
In Sunday’s press conference, Bolsonaro said Brazil will remain neutral in the conflict, noting Russia and Ukraine were “practically brother nations.”
“We will not take sides, we will continue being neutral, and help with whatever is possible,” Bolsonaro said. “A big part of Ukraine’s population speaks Russian.”
He added that he was against any sanctions that could bring negative repercussions for Brazil, citing Russian fertilizers which are crucial for the country’s giant agribusiness sector.
Bolsonaro also said he did not think Putin’s forces would carry out any mass bloodletting in Ukraine.
“A chief of state like that of Russia does not want to undertake a massacre, anywhere,” he said, adding that in two southern regions of Ukraine, some 90% of the population wanted to “approximate themselves to Russia.”