"I have just had a video meeting with the president of Ukraine. I reaffirmed Brazil's desire to speak with other countries and participate in whatever initiatives around the construction of peace and dialogue," Lula posted on Twitter.

"War cannot be of interest to anyone."

Ukraine has been at war with its much larger neighbor Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion a year ago.

The conversation between the two presidents came a day after Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in New Delhi.

While many western countries have sent weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian aggression and even more have imposed sanctions on Moscow, Lula has refused to send arms to Kyiv.

Instead, he created a group of countries seeking to produce a negotiated peace deal.

He first made his proposal public during a conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in Brasilia on January 30.

He also presented his idea to US President Joe Biden and France's Emmanuel Macron.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Galuzin, said last week that Moscow was studying the proposal.

Last year, Lula came under fire for claiming that Zelensky was "as responsible" for the war as Putin.

rsr/dga/bc/bfm

Twitter