BUENOS AIRES, December 11. /TASS/. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva refused to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky when the latter made a stopover in Brazil on his way to the inauguration of the Argentinian president, the O Globo newspaper reported, citing sources in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.

According to the sources, the Brazilian leader did not agree to the meeting because the request was made "at the very last moment" - on Thursday, December 7, when Lula da Silva and representatives of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry were attending the summit of heads of state of the countries that are members of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, the timing of the meeting and the circumstances were considered "unusual": Zelensky stopped to refuel his plane at an air base in Brasilia on the evening of December 9. He flew to Argentina just two hours after the plane landed. "It is very rare for such meetings to take place at an airbase without preparation or prior notice," an unnamed diplomat told the newspaper.

In May, the Ukrainian and Brazilian leaders attended the G7 summit in Hiroshima, but at that time they did not hold a bilateral meeting, to which, according to Lula da Silva, Zelensky "did not show up." The South American leader admitted that Zelensky's speech at the expanded G7 meeting did not change his position on the situation in Eastern Europe. The two leaders did manage to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Since assuming the presidency in January, Lula da Silva has noted that Russia is the guarantor of long-term peace in the world. He has already initiated the development of a new international format to create an opportunity for dialogue between Moscow and Kiev. The Brazilian president also said that he was ready to mediate direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, if necessary. Kiev, in turn, is inviting Brasilia to cooperate in the so-called Zelensky peace formula.