US welcomes Brazilian official’s trip to Ukraine, warns against rewarding Russia

A US envoy on Thursday welcomed an upcoming trip by a senior Brazilian official to Ukraine, but said that any negotiations should not “reward” Russia.

Closing a trip to Brazil, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said that officials affirmed “their commitment to addressing this issue from both sides.”

“We’re not telling Brazil not to engage on peace. What we have said is that engagement has to take Ukraine into account and it cannot be a negotiation based on rewarding Russia for taking Ukraine territory during their unprovoked war,” she told reporters.

Brazil has sought to chart a balanced path on the Ukraine war, condemning the invasion but not sending weapons to Ukraine or joining sanctions on Russia.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva irritated the United States by saying on a visit to China last month that Washington was partly responsible for the war through its billions of dollars in weapons shipments to Ukraine.

Lula later said that he opposed the invasion but favored peace negotiations and would send to Ukraine a senior aide, Celso Amorim, whom Thomas-Greenfield met earlier Thursday at the presidential palace.

Asked by reporters at their meeting what he would discuss in Ukraine, Amorim said simply, “Peace.”

Thomas-Greenfield said she “encouraged” his trip and that he confirmed he would travel to Ukraine, without giving a date.

Amorim, Lula’s top adviser on international affairs, also visited Moscow in March, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.