Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday urged Mexico to help make the case in Latin America for his peace plan for Ukraine, even as tensions persist within the country's ruling party about offering support to Kyiv.
Mexico's government has said it wants to remain neutral in Ukraine's war with Russia. Some Ukraine supporters have criticized leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for finding fault with European arms shipments to Kyiv.
Still, Mexico has voted with the United States and other Western countries on a number of major U.N. resolutions criticizing Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In his first speech to Mexican lawmakers since the invasion, Zelenskiy thanked Mexico for its backing on U.N. votes and humanitarian aid, and invited it to show "leadership" by contributing to his "formula for peace".
The plan includes Russia withdrawing all of its troops from Ukraine's territory, and he set it out to world leaders last November.
Zelenskiy noted that he in February called for a summit of Latin American leaders to make the case for peace, national sovereignty and territorial integrity - parts of his plan that are also issues close to Lopez Obrador's heart.
"I think with Mexico's help, this could be much quicker," Zelenskiy said via videolink, speaking through an interpreter.
Nevertheless, a house leadership body presided over by Lopez Obrador's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) issued a terse statement distancing itself from the event, saying Zelenskiy's address only took place at the invitation of a congressional friendship group between the two countries.
"The meeting of the Mexico-Ukraine friendship group does not represent a consensual position of the lower house," it said.
Lopez Obrador last year pitched a plan to halt the fighting in Ukraine, although Ukrainian officials opposed it, arguing it would benefit Russia. Zelenskiy has said he will only consider peace settlements once Russian troops leave Ukrainian territory.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard met separately with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to discuss the peace plan at the U.N. General Assembly last year. Nothing has come of it.
Zelenskiy made his address as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is on a Latin American tour, visiting Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Jamie Freed)
