"Hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, for goodness' sake"

Brazilian President Lula wants to persuade the Kremlin leader to personally participate in negotiations with Ukraine.

On his way back from China, he will stop over in Moscow to try to speak to Putin.

"It costs me nothing to say: "Hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, for goodness' sake," said the Brazilian president. Lula had attended a meeting of Latin American states with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

In a joint statement, Lula and Xi emphasised that negotiations were "the only way" to end the war in Ukraine.

Last week, Lula attended the Victory Day parade in Moscow as an international guest of Putin, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Following a meeting with the Kremlin leader, he announced that he would deepen relations between Brazil and Russia.

(MH with AmBar - Source: Agency - Photo: © DPA - Anadolu - Sergey Bobylev - RIA Novosti)