Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he had a phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, during which he assured him of his readiness to help with a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, the Brazilian Globa edition said on Friday.

The Brazilian President said in a statement he had a call with Russian president, thanked him for the invitation to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and said that he could not come to Russia now. He reiterated the readiness of Brazil, which, together with India, Indonesia and China, agrees to negotiate in search of peace.

According to Lula da Silva, he is ready to come to Moscow and Kyiv when necessary, but so far he does not see the point in this. He explained that in his opinion, there is no readiness to end the crisis yet. At the same time, he pointed out the need to conduct a dialogue about peace in order to prevent casualties.