Ukraine Agrees to Work with Brazil’s Lula on Peace Efforts After G7 Summit
Ukraine and Brazil Collaborate on Peace Initiatives
Background of the Peace Offer
June 19 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accepted an offer from Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to help work for a peace deal in Russia's war in Ukraine, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Friday.
G7 Summit Discussions
Zelenskiy and Lula met on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the French resort of Evian-les-Bains on Wednesday, where the Ukrainian leader urged allies to increase pressure on Russia to end the more than four-year-old war.
Diplomatic Proposals and Security Council Involvement
The two presidents discussed what could reactivate diplomacy and Lula proposed several ideas, including contacts with permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters.
"They agreed that, in particular, based on such ideas and contacts, they would try to achieve something and later they would discuss it based on the results," Lytvyn said.
International Mediation Efforts
Role of the United Nations Security Council
Aside from the United States, France and Britain - with whom Ukraine has close diplomatic contact - the permanent Security Council members are Russia and China.
Challenges in Mediation
A U.S.-backed mediation effort earlier this year stalled amid Russia's insistence on further territorial concessions from Ukraine, something Kyiv staunchly refuses.
Zelenskiy has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to return to the mediation efforts and broker a face-to-face meeting between him and Vladimir Putin - something the Russian leader has ruled out for now.
Lula’s Renewed Diplomatic Efforts
Statements Following the G7 Meeting
Following the G7 meeting in Brazil, Lula said that in the past Zelenskiy had not expressed any interest in his offers of diplomatic efforts for peace, but now he had accepted them.
Lula told a news conference that he had already spoken with the leaders of all the five permanent members of the Security Council and he would do so again.
Ukraine’s Push for Renewed Diplomacy
Ukraine has recently made a push to reinvigorate diplomacy to end the war as U.S.-brokered peace talks stalled due to the Iran war.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo; Editing by Nia Williams)
