Kyiv invites Lula as Putin tours occupied south and east
A look back at the events reported on 18 April 2023, when diplomacy over Brazil and a rare Putin visit shared the news.
What did Kyiv want from Brazil's president, and what was Moscow doing at the front? Reports dated 18 April 2023, and reviewed here for 19 April 2023, pointed to a day of sharp diplomatic signalling alongside continuing losses in the war.
The Ukrainian government invited Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to visit Ukraine. In the same breath it criticised his approach to Russia's invasion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, welcomed Lula's position on peace efforts. The contrast was plain: one capital offering an invitation tied to disagreement, the other offering praise.
Putin in the occupied regions
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Russian-occupied parts of Kherson and Luhansk oblasts. He met military commanders in charge of operations. The two regions are among the four that Russia unilaterally declared annexed on 30 September 2022, together with Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. According to later accounts of that annexation, none of the four oblasts was fully under Russian control when the declaration was made, and none has been since.
A combat death
The same day brought news that Oleh Barna, a former People's Deputy of Ukraine, had been killed in combat.
Taken together, the reports of 18 April 2023 showed the war being fought on several fronts: on the ground, in the occupied territories, and in the contest over how third countries framed the search for peace.
