Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accepted an offer from his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to help broker a peace deal with Russia, an adviser to Zelensky said on Wednesday, Reuters reported, BTA reports.
Zelensky and Lula met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French resort of Evian on Wednesday, where the Ukrainian leader urged allies to increase pressure on Moscow to end the more than four-year-old war.
The two heads of state discussed how diplomacy could be revived, and Lula offered several ideas, including reaching out to the permanent members of the UN Security Council, the adviser said. Ukrainian Communications President Dmytro Lytvyn.
“They agreed that, in particular, on the basis of such ideas and contacts, they will try to achieve something and later discuss it based on the results obtained”, Lytvyn said.
In addition to the United States, France and Britain - with whom Ukraine is in close diplomatic contact - Russia and China are also permanent members of the Security Council.
Mediation efforts by the United States earlier this year have stalled due to Russia's insistence on further territorial gains from Ukraine, which Kiev categorically rejects.
Zelensky called on US President Donald Trump to renew mediation efforts and arrange a meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, something the Russian leader has ruled out for now.
After the G7 summit in Brazil, Lula said that Zelensky had not shown interest in the proposals in the past for diplomatic efforts for peace, but has now accepted them.
The Brazilian president said at a press conference that he had already spoken with the leaders of all five permanent members of the Security Council and would do so again soon.
Ukraine has recently been making efforts to resume diplomacy to end the war after U.S.-brokered peace talks stalled over the war in Iran.