Lula Says Zelensky, Biden Share Blame for Putin’s War on Ukraine

Bloomberg — Brazil’s presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy shares part of the blame for Russia’s invasion of his country as he failed to negotiate more with Moscow.

“This guy is as responsible as Putin for the war. Because in the war, there’s not just one person guilty,” Lula, 76, told Time magazine in an interview published on Wednesday. “The president of Ukraine could have said: ‘Come on, let’s stop talking about this NATO business, about joining the E.U. for a while. Let’s discuss a bit more first.’”

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The leftist leader and two-term former president blasted Western leaders for failing to prevent the war in Eastern Europe, including U.S.’s Joe Biden, who “could have taken a plane to Moscow to talk to Putin.” The Russian president spent months amassing troops along the Ukraine border before launching an invasion.

“The United States has a lot of political clout. And Biden could have avoided [the war], not incited it,” he said.