The west must take “into account” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s security concerns and stop the slide towards a Versailles-style victors’ peace in Ukraine, said Brazil’s top foreign policy adviser.

Celso Amorim, a foreign minister during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s first two terms and current adviser on international affairs to the leftwing leader, said the west’s belligerent stance against Moscow risked provoking a wider conflict.

“We don’t want a third world war. And even if we don’t have that, we don’t want a new cold war,” Amorim told the Financial Times. “All concerns of countries in the region should be taken into account, if you want peace. The only other alternative is total military victory against Russia. Do you know what comes after? I don’t.”