Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are scheduled to meet on Wednesday in New York, the office of the Brazilian president announced, after previous attempts to hold a meeting between them failed.
Lula's office said the Brazilian president, who has faced accusations from the West of being lenient with Russia over its war on Ukraine, would meet Zelenskiy after a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The two presidents made unusual remarks between presidents when they were unable to meet last May in Japan.
Ukraine's president sought a one-on-one meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, and the two leaders said their preoccupation prevented them from meeting.
Asked if he was disappointed not to be able to speak directly with Lola, Zelenskiy said: "I think he was the one who was disappointed."
"I wasn't disappointed; I was upset because I wanted to meet him and discuss it," Lula told a news conference, adding: "Zelenskiy is an adult man, he knows what he's doing."
Brazil's president said his team had scheduled a meeting with Zelenskiy that was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. But the Ukrainian president was late and his schedule was packed afterwards.
The two presidents will attend the U.N. summit and U.N. General Assembly, which officially begin on Tuesday, for a week, focused on reviving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at avoiding, among other things, poverty, hunger, poor education and poor health care.