BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday he knows how the war between Russia and Ukraine could be “resolved” and that he will pitch his suggestions to Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy, with whom he is set to have a phone meeting next week.
“I’ll tell him my opinion, what I think. The solution to this. I know how it could be resolved. But I won’t tell anyone,” Bolsonaro told reporters while on a visit to the northeastern state of Maranhao.
“The solution to this case would be like how Argentina’s war with the UK ended in 1982,” he said, without providing further details.
Argentina and Britain fought a short conflict in 1982 over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic, known in Argentina as the Malvinas. It began in April 1982 when Argentine troops landed on the British-controlled islands, and Britain sent a naval task force to retake them. The poorly-equipped Argentine troops stood little chance and Argentina surrendered two months later.
Bolsonaro has a phone call scheduled for July 18 with Zelenskiy. He said the Ukrainian leader was the one who initially reached out and that he immediately agreed to the call.
The Brazilian president visited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow in February, a few days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bolsonaro has so far taken a neutral stand on the conflict as Brazil looks to keep doing business with Russia.
Earlier this week his foreign relations minister said Brazil is looking to buy as much diesel as it can from Russia, which is also a large supplier of fertilizers to the South American agricultural powerhouse.
“This war has been causing huge disruption. Less for Brazil, much more for Europe,” Bolsonaro said.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
