Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro hopes to be reelected. Photo: THIAGO RIBEIRO
Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a close ally of former US President Donald Trump, has claimed the war in Ukraine would not have happened if Trump were still in office.
However, he offered no explanation for how Trump could have prevented the conflict.
The comments were published on Friday as part of an interview in news magazine Veja, and could add to tensions in the country's relationship with Washington as Bolsonaro is seeking to overtake leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of a Brazilian presidential runoff vote on 30 October.
Bolsonaro told Veja that he had a good in-person meeting with US President Joe Biden in June.
But in remarks likely to rile the White House, he said many of the current issues and tensions the world faced would not be occurring if Trump were still president.
"Some think that the war in Ukraine would not have happened if he were still in power," Bolsonaro said. "I agree with that."
He did not give further details.
Bolsonaro has long admired Trump, a fellow right-wing populist, and saw his international standing diminish after the 2020 US election.
Bolsonaro was among the last world leaders to recognise Biden's victory, after repeating Trump's false allegations of US electoral fraud.
Trump endorsed Bolsonaro ahead of last Sunday's first round of the presidential election, and said Bolsonaro was "one of the great presidents of any country in the world ... respected by everybody throughout the world."
Despite his better-than-expected performance in the first round, Bolsonaro raised fresh doubts in the interview about the security of Brazil's voting system, without evidence, fanning fears that he could refuse to accept defeat.
In the interview with Veja, he kept up his unfounded questioning of Brazil's electronic voting system, and declined to say whether he would accept the result if he lost in the second round.
"There's a feeling in public opinion that there was something dodgy," he said. "I'm always worried."
In the wide-ranging interview, Bolsonaro also committed to more privatisations if he was re-elected and said his regular sparring partner, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, "has all the symptoms of a dictator."
He said he could look at a proposal to increase the number of Supreme Court justices after the election.
Bolsonaro pledged to carry out more privatisations if he was re-elected, although he did not say which state-owned firms would be up for sale.
Polls: Lula leading Bolsonaro in second round of election
Leftist Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is leading right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, with 49 percent of voter support against the incumbent's 44 percent, ahead of the 30 October runoff vote, according to a poll.
The survey by pollster Datafolha was conducted from 5 to 7 October, and included interviews with 2884 people, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down. Datafolha was one of several polling firms criticised for underestimating support for Bolsonaro in the first-round vote on 2 October.
-Reuters