Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed gratitude to Brazil for its approach in pushing for an end to hostilities in Ukraine – an effort that has irked both Kyiv and the West, and by afternoon prompted an unusually sharp rebuke from the White House.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has refused to provide weapons to Ukraine while proposing a club of nations including Brazil and China to mediate peace.

On Sunday, Lula told reporters in Abu Dhabi that two nations – both Russia and Ukraine – had decided to go to war, and a day earlier in Beijing said the US must stop “stimulating” the continued fighting and start discussing peace. Earlier this month, he suggested Ukraine could cede Crimea to end the war, which Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko and others rejected.

Demonstrators in Brasilia protest on Monday against the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Brazil. Photo / Eraldo Peres, AP

After meeting Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, on Monday, Lavrov told reporters the West was engaged in “a rather tough struggle” to maintain its dominance in world affairs.

 “As for the process in Ukraine, we are grateful to our Brazilian friends for their excellent understanding of this situation’s genesis. We are grateful [to them] for striving to contribute to finding ways to settle it,” Lavrov said.

Lula’s recent comments, particularly ascribing any blame to Ukraine for Russia’s invasion in February last year, run counter to the position held by the European Union, the United States and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

And any talk of a ceasefire is viewed as an opportunity for Russia to regroup its forces for a new offensive. Zelenskyy told the Associated Press last month that a loss anywhere at this stage in the war could put Ukraine’s hard-fought momentum at risk.

Vieira, for his part, told reporters that Brazil saw sanctions against Russia as causing negative impacts for the global economy, particularly for developing nations, and that Brazil supported an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

After the meeting, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby blasted Brazil’s approach to the war and its officials for having met Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin in person, while thus far speaking to Ukrainian officials only by phone.

“Brazil has substantively and rhetorically approached this issue by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace or that we share responsibility for the war,” Kirby said in Washington. “In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arriving at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia on Monday. Photo / Eraldo Peres, AP

Kirby said the Biden administration hoped Lula and others would urge Russia “to cease the bombing of Ukrainian cities, hospitals and schools, halt the war crimes and the atrocities and, quite frankly, to pull back Russian forces from Ukraine”.

As part of his effort to end the war, Lula has withheld munitions to Ukraine, despite a request from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Lula has said that sending supplies would mean Brazil entering the war, which he seeks to end.

His administration is seeking to simultaneously develop ties with China, Europe and the US while keeping an open door to Russia. However, his recent remarks may have undermined his effort to secure these competing objectives, said Christopher Garman, managing director for the Americas at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

“It’s not a good look, when you have the Russian chancellor side by side, and it’s the Russian position,” Garman said by phone. “The optics do diminish Brazil’s credibility as an independent arbiter, but I think that the import is larger precisely because of the current storms that Lula stoked with his comments in China and the UAE.”

There were already indications that Moscow had appreciated Lula’s stance. One of roughly 50 leaked classified documents on the platform Discord that have been viewed by the AP said that, as of late February, Russia’s foreign affairs ministry supported Lula’s plan to establish a club of supposedly impartial mediators, as it “would reject the West’s ‘aggressor-victim’ paradigm”. The item cited electronic surveillance as the source.

Critics have argued that Brazil’s position aims to avoid confronting a key supplier of fertiliser for its soybean plantations, exports from which are largely destined for China. Both Russia and China hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council, and Brazil for decades has sought to join them. Lavrov said on Monday that Russia was backing Brazil’s bid.

Vinicius Vieira, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank, said Lula’s comments on Ukraine were “badly calibrated” and that saying Kyiv should cede Crimea would appear to favour Russia.

“The issue of fertilisers is fundamental, but that would be well resolved with Brazil staying neutral, calling all sides to speak, but without saying Ukraine owes something to Russia,” Vieira said.

After his stay in Brazil, Lavrov will travel to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

In an article published on the website of Russia’s foreign ministry, as well as in Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Lavrov appeared to cast the Latin American countries’ trade relationship – notably that between Russia and Brazil, especially concerning fertilisers – as a backdrop and source of leverage for possible discussions regarding Brazil’s continued refusal to provide weapons to Ukraine.

Brazil’s foreign minister said Russia accounted for a quarter of Brazil’s fertiliser imports, and that he and Lavrov discussed measures to guarantee its supply.