Brazil refuses to sell Ukraine weapons, NYT reports
The flag of Brazil (Photo:gleidiconrodrigues / pixabay)
The Brazilian government continues to refuse Kyiv’s requests to purchase heavy military equipment, insisting instead on attempting to negotiate with Moscow, The New York Times reported on April 12.
According to the report, German officials reached out to Brazil in 2022 with a request for ammunition Germany previously sold to Brazil. The response was unequivocal: not if it will end up in Ukraine.
Being rather dependent on Russia for shipments of fertilizers and fuel, Brazil made it clear it won’t supply Ukraine with weapons.
“I don’t want to enter the war; I want to end it,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said earlier this year.
The recent leak of alleged Pentagon papers suggests Ukraine is in urgent need for more weapons to withstand Russian aggression, particularly when it comes to air defense systems – something Brazil is in a position to supply.
Making use of Brazil’s freedom of information laws, the NYT determined that authorities have refused at least two Ukrainian requests for armored vehicles, warplanes, AA systems, mortars, and other weapons.
The report notes that Brazilian companies like Embraer also manufacture fighter jets, which at the top of Ukraine’s current military needs. Developing countries, such as Brazil, tend to make weapons that are cheaper to produce and maintain, compared to their U.S.-made counterparts.
And while Brazil maintains its foreign policy aims to remain friendly will all countries, it has a history of supplying weapons to warring states. Since the conflict in Yemen began in 2014, Brazil supplied Saudi Arabia and the UAE with $680 million in weapon and ammunition shipments, according to available trade data.
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