A prominent member of the Brazilian right is facing calls to resign after he was exposed in leaked audio messages making a succession of callous and misogynistic remarks about Ukrainian refugees during a purportedly humanitarian mission to the recently invaded country.
Arthur do Val, a São Paulo congressman and former supporter of Brazil’s rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro, made a three-day trip to the region last week, supposedly to raise awareness of the human cost of Vladimir Putin’s attack.
On Thursday Do Val, 35, tweeted a photograph of himself surrounded by crates of motolov cocktails in the border city of Uzhhorod. His traveling partner, the rightwing activist Renan Santos, said they had donated thousands of dollars, helped refugees cross the border and “filmed the reality of a country at war”.
