Lula and Zelensky are scheduled to meet Wednesday in New York

NAccording to information previously reported by the Brazilian press, and now confirmed to Lusa, the two presidents are expected to meet at around 4:00 pm at the hotel where the Brazilian president is staying during his stay in the North American city to participate in the 78th. session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The meeting between Lula da Silva and Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to take place after the meeting that the Brazilian leader will have with the North American president, Joe Biden.

This will be the first time that Lula da Sila and Volodymyr Zelensky will have a bilateral meeting, after, in May, on the sidelines of the G7 summit, the meeting ended up not taking place, with Volodymyr Zelensky stating that “there were no steps” for part of Lula da Silva.

On the other hand, the Brazilian head of state stated that he was “upset” after the Ukrainian delegation postponed the meeting until finally not showing up.

Despite condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24 last year, the Brazilian president had already, in April, admitted the cession of Crimea, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, as a way out of the conflict and, in BRICS summit, once again called for a negotiated peace and the abandonment of an “obsolete Cold War mentality”.

The meeting now confirmed between the heads of state of Brazil and Ukraine takes place at a time of troubled relations between the two countries, due to statements that Lula da Silva has made in relation to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the last of which was at the stating that he would not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin under a decision by the International Criminal Court if he came to Brazil.

The Brazilian president went back on his statements saying that such a decision would be up to Brazilian justice, but insisted that the country should review its presence at the International Criminal Court.

Putin is the target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued in March on suspicion of war crimes for the deportation of Ukrainian children.

“I really want to study this issue of this Criminal Court, because the United States is not a signatory to it, Russia is not a signatory to it. So, I want to know why Brazil is a signatory to a court that the USA does not accept. Why are we inferior and we have to accept one thing?”, said Lula da Silva, in India, during his participation in the G20 Summit, last week.

Days earlier, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, reminded his Brazilian counterpart that Ukrainians are victims of the Russian invasion and that “the war is not in Brazil”, rejecting territorial concessions and asking for respect for independent states.

“The war is specifically in Ukraine, the victims are specifically Ukrainians. They are not Brazilians, or other Europeans, nor Americans. They are specifically tens of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands, who died or were injured, they are our homes that were attacked or bombed, not the houses in Brazil or other countries”, said Zelensky in an interview with RTP.

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