Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that his country will not back a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching a military operation in Ukraine, and maintaining a neutral stance.
"No sanctions or condemnation of President Putin ... The vote of Brazil is not determined by and is not associated with any power. Our free vote will be cast in this direction ... Our stance with Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franca is balanced. And we cannot interfere. We want peace, but we cannot allow the consequences to affect Brazil," Bolsonaro said during a press conference in Sao Paulo on Sunday evening, as quoted by the G1 news outlet.
When asked about maintaining neutrality regarding Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, the president said that a significant part of Ukraine speaks Russian and that Russians and Ukrainians are fraternal peoples.
"Bloodshed of civilians is off the table, nobody is using such tactics, ... talking about a massacre is an exaggeration, it is not in the interests of the Russian leader to arrange a massacre," Bolsonaro added.
Last Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics for help in countering the aggression of Ukrainian forces. Moscow has repeatedly said that it has no plans to occupy the Ukrainian territory. Multiple countries accused Russia of invading the neighbouring country and violating its territorial integrity and pledged to provide Kyiv with additional military assistance to fight the Russian armed forces.
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