Ambassador Melnyk: Brazilians don’t understand why they need Ukraine

Brazilian citizens don’t understand why they need Ukraine, assessed Ukraine’s ambassador to Brazil, Andrii Melnyk, in an interview given to Ukrainska Pravda.

“Russians have been much more active: they have invested resources, time, and brains into this region and the Global South in general. Unfortunately, we have not been sufficiently present here because we focused on other priorities – namely, the European Union and NATO – so this region was a distant periphery for us. Therefore, it’s difficult to rekindle Brazilian interest and convince them that engaging with Ukraine is worthwhile,” Melnyk evaluated.

Brazilians understand that there is a war happening in Ukraine. “But when you go to the Foreign Ministry or the parliament, and when you speak with the elite, you see that they are afraid to even mention the word, like in Harry Potter,” the ambassador explained.

Brazilian officials are afraid of getting involved. “When I first arrived in Brazil, I was very shocked that during meetings with Foreign Ministry department directors, deputy ministers, no one even asked me, off the record, ‘How are things with you? You were in Kyiv, your family, friends – how are they? Tell us.’ No one showed any interest,” Melnyk recalled.

“And so, the task I see for myself is to mobilize as many people as possible to start thinking about and caring about our war and our plight. This can be achieved primarily through the parliament,” the ambassador noted.

Only recently, between August 3 to 16, UWC President Paul Grod undertook an important mission to South America, drawing attention to Ukraine’s independence struggle amid Russia’s ongoing genocidal war.

The full interview with Ambassador Melnyk is available at this link.