The Ukrainian community in Portugal has issued an open letter this Thursday criticizing the Brazilian president’s statements about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, expressing “deep concern and apprehension” as she understands Brazil is moving in the wrong direction of history.
The open letter, to which Lusa had access, will be delivered this Friday at the end of the afternoon to the Brazilian Embassy in Lisbon on behalf of the Ukrainian community in Portugal and in the countries of the European Union (EU) and also from the more than eight million refugees from Ukraine as part of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva’s visit to Lisbon on Friday, where he will remain until Tuesday.
In the document sent to the Lusa bureau today, the Ukrainian community recalls that Lula da Silva said that the peaceful solution to end the war is for Ukraine to give up its territory, as the guilt must be shared between both sides.
The words of the Brazilian president, spoken in the presence of the head of Russian diplomacy Serguei Lavrov, were immediately criticized by the West, especially by the European Union and the United States, which forced Lula da Silva to “change his hand” to emphasize that he condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and calls for peace.
“While my government condemns the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, we defend a negotiated political solution. I spoke of our concern about the consequences of the war, which extend beyond the European continent”said Lula da Silva later.
However, the “correction” in the words of the Brazilian head of state was not satisfactory to the signatories of the open letter initialed by the presidents of the European Congress of Ukrainians, Bogdan Raicinec, and of the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadokha.
“In this context, we believe that any kind of support that Brazil would like to give to the Russian Federation will discredit and lead to distrust of the international community. […] Nobody wants Brazil’s good name, as a democratic and free nation, to be tarnished as an ally of the criminal Kremlin regime. That is why recent statements have made us very concerned and worried.”is in the message.
For the document’s signatories, seeking to “clear up” Lula da Silva’s misconception about the conflict, “any just peace deal proposed by the Russian Federation will end in concentration camps for the extermination of the Ukrainian nation with the silent solution.” Z'”, a reference to the letters painted on Russian military vehicles used in the invasion of Ukraine.
“We already experienced the situation in the last century with the Nazi extermination act, culminating in the communist organization of the Holodomor, in an attempt to exterminate any Ukrainian survivors. We resisted and survived”they underline.
The open letter guarantees that the Ukrainians “will continue to fight”, especially for the “children who [o Presidente russo, Vladimir] Putin deports to Russia while executing his parents.”
“Allow us to remind that the illegal deportation of our children was in fact the basis of the indictment for the issuance of an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court”added to the document
“One issue has become very clear: this war has already divided the world into two poles. One that defends freedom, order and progress, and another that puts its imperialist and oligarchic interests above the highest good of human life, of international order and Mr President, if there are times in history when neutrality cannot be confused with knowledge or fear, this is certainly one of them.”add the signers.
“Ukrainians will never forget the brave Brazilian soldiers who helped liberate Europe from the totalitarian yoke and that is why we believe the time has come for Your Excellency to lead Brazil to the right side of history and in line with the free world”is underlined in the document.
The open letter ends with the two leaders repeating Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to Lula da Silva to visit Ukraine “to see ‘in loco’ and with my own eyes the meaning of ‘Russian peace'”.
Source: DN
