Brazil will support a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Friday, two sources close to the talks told Reuters.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, scolded his Vice President Hamilton Mourao on Thursday for condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said it was not Mourao's job to speak about the crisis in eastern Europe.
"We will support the Security Council resolution and we will condemn the invasion," said one of the sources, who requested anonymity.
"Russia broke the U.N. rules by invading another country. That fact cannot go without a condemnation," the official said.
Brazil's Foreign Ministry on Thursday expressed concern about Russia's military operations and urged a diplomatic solution, but did not condemn the invasion.
At the Kremlin alongside Putin just days before the invasion, Bolsonaro said he was "in solidarity with Russia," without elaborating. He later told reporters Putin had peaceful intentions.
The U.S. State Department deplored Bolsonaro's comments and said they undermined diplomatic efforts to avert a disaster as well as Brazil's own calls for a peaceful resolution.
Ukraine on Thursday demanded an expression of solidarity from Brazil and condemnation of Russia's "aggression" against its territory.
"We are still waiting for the official expression of solidarity," Ukrainian chargé d’affaires in Brasilia, Anatoliy Tkach, said at a news conference. Tkach said he was hearing that solidarity from Brazilian diplomats on a personal basis.
Brazil is seeking to open negotiation channels with other countries, like fellow BRICS member India, that could communicate with Putin, one of the sources told Reuters.
He said the Brazilian view is that neither the U.N. resolution nor sanctions will would help to end the invasion.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Gabriel Araujo and Anthony Boadle)
