MEXICO CITY — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took a swipe Thursday at leaders who’ve adopted postures of neutrality relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling them populists.
Zelenskyy’s feedback, in a video hyperlink earlier than a committee of Mexican legislators, have been an obvious reference to leaders similar to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Brazilian chief has refused to supply weapons to Ukraine, has appeared to ascribe blame to each side and has proposed a membership of countries together with Brazil and China to mediate peace.
Mexico, below President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has voted to sentence the invasion, though it has declined to impose financial sanctions on Russia.
“There are some leaders who haven’t visited Ukraine as soon as and who haven’t seen what the brutal Russian aggression introduced, and why it is very important defend lives,” Zelenskyy stated, including “however merely in search of to realize some type of populism they are saying issues like Ukraine is supposedly not able to go for peace.”
Zelenskyy additionally slammed “completely different firms and large multinational corporations that need to make thousands and thousands by buying and selling with Russia,” including “sadly, the world is filled with hypocrisy.”
Earlier this month, Lula instructed reporters in Abu Dhabi that two nations – Russia and Ukraine – had determined to go to warfare, and a day earlier in Beijing stated the U.S. should cease “stimulating” the continued combating and begin discussing peace.
Lula has additionally advised Ukraine may cede Crimea to finish the warfare, one thing the spokesperson for Ukraine’s overseas ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, and others rejected.
The Ukranian president obtained an anticipated standing ovation from the legislators of the Mexico-Ukraine Friendship Group, most of whom belong to opposition events.
In 2022, López Obrador decried NATO coverage of supporting Ukraine, claiming it was equal to saying “I’ll provide the weapons, and also you provide the {dead}. It’s immoral.”
“How simple it’s to say, ’Right here, I’ll ship you this a lot cash for weapons,” López Obrador stated. “Couldn’t the warfare in Ukraine have been averted? In fact it may.”
López Obrador didn’t say how, apart from Russia not invading. In 2022, a half-dozen legislators from López Obrador’s Morena get together helped create a congressional “Mexico-Russia Friendship Committee.”
The Morena get together stated “we respect the liberty of considered our members” after a youth group apparently affiliated with the get together despatched an open letter to the Russian ambassador supporting the invasion.
Russia has been making a type of diplomatic push in Latin America this week. Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov met Wednesday with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and the 2 commiserated about U.S. sanctions.
Lavrov on Thursday met with lately reelected Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, over the last leg of a Latin American tour that took him to Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela.