International support. Brazilian MP Arthur do Val announced that he was in Ukraine to manufacture Molotov cocktails to supply to the army of this country to face the Russian invasion.
“I never imagined that one day I would make Molotov cocktails for the Ukrainian army,” said this deputy from the state of Sao Paulo, in a video on Instagram. A parliamentary assistant to the deputy confirmed that Arthur do Val was indeed in Ukraine and that he was due to return to Brazil this weekend.
This message published Thursday evening is illustrated with a photo of him, seated on the ground, alongside dozens of crates filled with glass bottles.
“We made lots of Molotov cocktails. In the room where we were, there were more than 75,000,” said the deputy in a video also posted on Instagram and filmed on the border between Ukraine and Slovakia.
Jair Bolsonaro’s neutrality speech
Since the start of the conflict, Arthur do Val has criticized the positions of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has displayed his “neutrality”, without condemning the offensive launched by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as did most world leaders. Despite Jair Bolsonaro’s “neutrality” speech, Brazil voted on Wednesday in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution that strongly condemns the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The Brazilian president had visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow a week before the invasion and expressed his “solidarity” with him.
A member of the Free Brazil Movement (MBL), a right-wing political movement that made a name for itself by organizing mass demonstrations to demand the dismissal of the left-wing ex-president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, this 35-year-old deputy had indicated in beginning of the week that he would travel to Europe to support the Ukrainians.
The MBL launched an online kitty and announced that it had collected 180,000 reais (about 32,000 euros) intended for the purchase of food for the Ukrainian population.