Russian dictator Vladimir Putin proposed on Thursday (5) that Brazil, China and India be mediators in future peace negotiations with Ukraine, in opposition to the United States and European powers, which would be interested, according to Moscow, in prolonging the conflict.
“We respect our friends and partners who, I believe, are sincerely interested in resolving all issues related to this conflict. These are primarily China, Brazil and India,” Putin said during the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum, which is being held in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.
“We are willing to enter into negotiations with them [os ucranianos]“We have never opposed this. But not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of documents agreed upon and actually signed in Istanbul,” Putin said, referring to the March 2022 agreements.
According to Putin, if the Ukrainians had signed this document, “the war would have ended long ago.” The dictator argued that the leaders of Brazil, China and India “honestly aspire to help understand all the details of this complicated process.”
The three countries mentioned by Putin are allies of Russia in the BRICS group of emerging economies. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, they have increased their imports of Russian oil, financing the Kremlin’s war machine.
In July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for visiting Putin in Moscow shortly after a wave of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine that targeted the country’s largest pediatric hospital.
In August, however, the Indian prime minister also visited Kiev and asked Zelensky for peace talks.
Putin has imposed as demands for peace with Ukraine that Kiev agree to concede more territory than it has occupied (i.e., give up the entire area of all four regions occupied by Russian troops, which it does not fully control) and that Ukrainians give up their plans to join NATO. Ukraine has made starting talks conditional on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country.
China, which claims to have an “unlimited partnership” with Russia, announced shortly before the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, presented in May, together with Brazil, a proposal for negotiations to end the conflict, but in June it did not send representatives to a peace conference held in Switzerland – whose final declaration the Brazilian government did not sign.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva angered Kiev with statements last year, attributing responsibility for the conflict to both sides, and in August Zelensky said in an interview with presenter Luciano Huck that Brazilians “live the narratives of the Soviet Union”.
In the Chinese case, Beijing is being urged by the West not to send weapons to Russia, which it has not done so far. However, the Biden administration pointed out in April that China is providing “incalculable support” to the Russian defense industry through the sale of microelectronics and optical products. (With EFE Agency)
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