Ukraine’s Zelenskyy addresses Mexican congress, denounces critics

The Ukrainian president denounced politicians pursuing “a kind of populism” by rejecting his country’s push for peace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Mexican lawmakers to support his country’s fight against invading Russian forces, punishing those he accused of denying Ukraine’s push for peace.

“There are some leaders who have not visited Ukraine once and who have not seen what the relentless Russian aggression has brought,” Zelenskyy told the Mexico-Ukraine Friendship Group via video on Thursday.

Some of those leaders, he added, were trying to “achieve a kind of populism” saying that “Ukraine is supposedly not ready to go for peace”.

The speech was Zelenskyy’s first address to Mexican lawmakers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It came in the wake of controversial comments by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who attributed the war to “decisions of two countries” – seemingly implicating Ukraine in Russia’s decision to invade.

Lula hit back at those comments on Wednesday, denouncing “the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity”. Brazil has tried to position itself as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine.

Similarly, Mexico has indicated it would remain neutral in the ongoing war in Ukraine and refused to participate in sanctions against Russia.

Mexico has nevertheless supported several United Nations resolutions favoring Ukraine, including a condemnation of the Russian attack in March 2022 and a text in October denouncing the “attempted illegal annexation” of territory.

In Thursday’s speech, Zelenskyy thanked Mexico for supporting the UN. But he urged Mexican lawmakers to show “leadership” in pursuing peace and urging Russia to withdraw its troops.

“I think with Mexico’s help this could go much faster,” Zelenskyy said. He reiterated his call for countries in the region to hold a summit on the issue.

“Ukraine has already proposed to the Latin American community to organize a special summit and show its unity and position on important global principles of territorial integrity, peace and respect among peoples,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s speech was broadcast to Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of its legislature, at the invitation of the congressional friendship group largely made up of politicians from opposition parties.

In the aftermath of the speech, Morena, the left-wing political party of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sought to distance itself from the broadcast.

“The meeting of the Mexico-Ukraine friendship group does not represent a consensual position of the lower house,” it wrote in a statement. However, some of the founders of the friendship group are from the Morena party.

López Obrador has criticized the efforts of the United States and its Western allies to supply Ukraine with arms, summarizing their policy as: “I supply the guns and you supply the dead.”

In his remarks last June, the Mexican president called the Allies’ position “immoral,” though he avoided specifically mentioning the US or any other country.

He also speculated at the time: “Couldn’t the war in Ukraine have been prevented? Of course it could.”

Zelenskyy’s speech on Thursday coincides with the end of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s tour of Latin America this week.

Lavrov met Brazil’s Lula on Monday, visited Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Wednesday and was in Cuba on Thursday to liaise with newly re-elected President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The Ukrainian president, in Thursday’s speech, bemoaned companies and industries “wanting to make millions by trading with Russia.”

“Unfortunately, the world is full of hypocrisy,” Zelensky said.