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Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported that President Lula da Silva turned down an offer to sell tank ammunition to Germany for use in Ukraine. Photo/Reuters
BRASILIA – Newspaper Brazil Folha de Sao Paulo reports President Lula da Silva turned down an offer to sell tank ammunition to Germany for use in Ukraine. An outspoken critic of Western policies towards Ukraine, Lula has tried to remain neutral in her conflict with Russia.
Brazil’s president allegedly rejected the request at a meeting with Brazil’s defense chief and Defense Minister Jose Mucio last week. According to the newspaper’s sources, army commander Julio Cesar de Arruda told Lula that Germany wanted to buy less than $5 million worth of shells for its Leopard 1 tank.
Lula reportedly considered asking Berlin to guarantee that it would not send ammunition to Ukraine, but ultimately rejected the offer, arguing that it was pointless to provoke Russia, as Folha de Sao Paulo reported. 1/2023).
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Less than a week later, Germany officially announced that it would be donating its Leopard 2 main battle tank force to Ukraine, and would allow other nations operating the tanks to transfer them to Kiev. It is unclear whether the ammunition referenced by Folha is compatible with the second generation of the Leopard tank.
Like his right-wing predecessors, left-wing president Lula has taken a neutral position on the conflict in Ukraine. While Jair Bolsonaro’s government formally condemned Moscow at the UN General Assembly for its military operations, both Bolsonaro and Lula did not impose sanctions on Russia, and each blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the outbreak of hostilities.
Lula has condemned the United States (US) for pouring tens of billions of dollars into the Ukrainian government and military, and suggested last year that US President Joe Biden could avoid conflict, not incite it.
He also stated that the NATO leadership should have assured Russia that Ukraine would never be allowed to join the US-led military bloc, which is one of Moscow’s main demands for peace before sending troops to the country.
Read: Ukrainian Armored Vehicle Blown Up by Self-Employed Anti-Tank Mine
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