MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. It is too early to make any kind of judgment about Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s initiative on a Ukrainian settlement as it is necessary to understand its nuances first. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will have an opportunity to clear everything up during his visit to Brasilia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"As for the initiative from the Brazilian side, it’s too early to make any assessments, because we need to have information, to know all the nuances. And as we speak our Foreign Minister [Sergey Lavrov] has an opportunity to learn these nuances [during his visit to the country]," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.
When replying to a question about whether Russia felt the need to hear ideas from third countries, Peskov pointed out that "any ideas taking into account Russia’s interests and concerns, of course, deserve attention." "And, certainly, they are worth listening to, and Russia is ready to do so. For us, the most important thing is to ensure our own interests," the Kremlin spokesman concluded.
Last week, Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, while in Beijing, called on the United States to stop fueling the conflict in Ukraine and move toward finding a peaceful solution. According to the Brazilian president, it’s now necessary to actively look for countries that, along with Brazil and China, would be ready to act as mediators in Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. Earlier, Lula da Silva said that Russia is the guarantor of long-term peace in the world. He had already proposed an initiative to develop a new international platform to get a dialogue going between Moscow and Kiev, stressing that he was ready, if necessary, to mediate direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Brazil on April 17-18, where he held several meetings, including with his counterpart Mauro Vieira. On Tuesday, the top Russian diplomat continued his Latin American tour and headed to Venezuela.