Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he will press Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in peace negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey later this week.

“I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula told a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday before heading for Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported. “It costs me nothing to say, ‘Hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, dammit.’ “

Russia and Brazil are both members of the BRICS group of emerging-market powers and Lula reportedly attended Moscow’s recent Victory Day parade.

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