Bolsonaro reafirma neutralidade brasileira na Ucrânia, elogia Putin

On the last day of February, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth day, Brazil's president sat in the coastal city of Guarujá, where he was spending carnival, and insisted his country would take no side in the war. Jair Bolsonaro had just spoken with Vladimir Putin by telephone for two hours. When pressed about what more he could do to help end the fighting, Bolsonaro pushed back: he had already done everything within his power, he said, and would keep doing it. The question itself seemed to irritate him.

Bolsonaro's position rested on a calculation about Brazil's own interests. A harder stance against Russia, he argued, would damage Brazilian agriculture—a cornerstone of the nation's economy that depended on trade relationships with Moscow. To criticize Putin more forcefully, in his view, would only multiply suffering: not just in Ukraine, but at home, in the form of economic harm to Brazilian farmers. Neutrality, he framed it, was the responsible choice. "We are not going to take sides," he said. "We will continue with neutrality and help, to the extent possible, in the search for solutions."

When asked about his recent visit to Russia earlier in the month and the phone call with Putin the day before, Bolsonaro declined to share specifics but characterized both exchanges as relaxed and substantive. He offered praise for the Russian president without reservation. Every conversation with Putin, he said, had been conducted at the highest level. Throughout the press conference, he made no criticism of Russian actions or intentions.

Bolsonaro went further, dismissing reports of atrocities in Ukraine as exaggeration. He did not believe Putin had any interest in committing a massacre, he said. The Russian leader was focused on two southern regions of Ukraine where, according to Bolsonaro's reading, more than ninety percent of the population had voted in a referendum to become independent and align with Russia. A decision by Brazil to condemn these actions, he repeated, could bring serious damage to the country.

On the question of nuclear threats—a concern preoccupying world leaders—Bolsonaro called such talk a "stillborn proposal," not worth negotiating. Nobody wanted to use weapons, he suggested; everyone preferred to use words. But the outcome of those words remained uncertain. He claimed most world leaders shared his thinking: they wanted a solution to the crisis, nothing more.

The immediate humanitarian question was more concrete. Hundreds of Brazilian citizens remained trapped in Ukraine, and their government had positioned C-390 Millennium transport aircraft to assist in evacuations if the opportunity arose. Bolsonaro said he did not believe Ukraine would block its borders to such a mission—it was a humanitarian matter, after all, and no country wanted to expose foreign civilians to war. If there were space on Brazilian planes, he said, Brazilians would be taken out.

Bolsonaro's framing of neutrality as economic necessity, his refusal to criticize Putin, and his skepticism toward reports of Russian atrocities painted a picture of a leader more concerned with protecting Brazil's agricultural exports than with the scale of violence unfolding in Eastern Europe. The evacuation of Brazilian citizens remained pending, contingent on border access that had not yet been secured.