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MEXICO CITY, April 21 (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out Thursday at leaders who have taken a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling them populists.
Zelensky’s comments, made by video link in front of a committee of Mexican lawmakers, apparently referred to leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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Brazil’s leader has refused to supply Ukraine with arms, appearing to place the blame on both sides and has proposed a club of nations including Brazil and China to mediate peace.
Mexico, under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, voted to condemn the invasion, although it rejected economic sanctions against Russia.
“There are some leaders who have never visited Ukraine, and have not seen what Russia’s brutal aggression has brought about, or the importance of defending life,” Zelensky said, adding, “But only to achieve a certain A kind of populism, they say like Ukraine is supposedly not ready for peace”.
Zelensky also slammed “different companies and large multinationals who want to make millions of dollars from trade with Russia,” adding that “unfortunately, the world is full of hypocrisy.”
Earlier this month, Lula told reporters in Abu Dhabi that the two countries, Russia and Ukraine, had decided to go to war, a day after saying in Beijing that the United States must stop “provoking” ongoing fighting and start discussing peace.
Lula also suggested that Ukraine could cede Crimea to end the war, a suggestion rejected by Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko and others.
The Ukrainian president received a standing ovation from lawmakers from the Mexico-Ukraine Friendship Group, most of whom belong to the opposition party.
In 2022, López Obrador denounced NATO’s policy of supporting Ukraine, saying it was tantamount to saying, “I provide the weapons and you provide the dead. It’s immoral.”
“How easy it is to say ‘here, I’ll give you this much money for weapons,'” said López Obrador. “Isn’t war in Ukraine inevitable? Of course it is.”
López Obrador did not specify the circumstances, saying only that Russia had not invaded. In 2022, six lawmakers from López Obrador’s Morena party helped create a congressional “Mexico-Russia Friendship Committee.”
Morena’s party said “we respect the freedom of thought of our members” after a youth group apparently affiliated with the party sent an open letter to the Russian ambassador in support of the invasion.
Russia has been making some sort of diplomatic effort in Latin America this week. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Wednesday, and the two expressed sympathy for U.S. sanctions.
Lavrov on Thursday met with recently reelected Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, during the last leg of a Latin American tour that took him to Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela. (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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