MADRID, April 25. /TASS/. Brazil’s authorities maintain contact both with Moscow and Kiev on the situation in Ukraine, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said in an interview with Spain’s El Mundo published on Tuesday.

"I think that the countries involved in this conflict are interested in peace," the top Brazilian diplomat noted. "We maintain contact with Ukraine, I have already spoken on the phone with my Ukrainian colleague [Dmitry Kuleba], [Brazilian] President [Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] have already talked to [Ukrainian] President [Vladimir] Zelensky, so I think that we will continue this dialogue," he explained.

"The same with Moscow," Vieira stressed. "[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has already called President Lula, I have recently received [Russian] Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov in Brasilia, I have already been with him in India, at the Group of Twenty meeting in New Delhi," he added. The Kremlin reported that a phone call between Putin and Lula da Silva took place on December 20, 2022. However, the Kremlin’s report on the conversation did not mention that the sides discussed any Ukraine-related issues.

Vieira also noted that the US could join a group of countries that aspire to settle the situation in Ukraine. "We also have a channel [of communication with Washington] and they never told us about any annoyance with [Brazil’s stance on Ukraine]," the foreign minister specified. "We are ready to sit down and talk to all the countries that want peace and aspire for peace," he added. "Are you asking me whether the US can be present as well? Yes, everyone who wants to," the top diplomat added.

In mid-April in Beijing, Lula da Silva 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.