> Brazil was not too long ago the 5th economy in the world
When? Sources I can find have it topping out at 6th in 1995, which (aside from not being 5th) is quite a while ago.
> It's the largest military in Latin America.
And if we were discussing their ability to take Uruguay in a fight, that might be relevant.
> It's in good diplomatic terms with pretty much all countries in the globe.
Sure, few countries have any significant disputes with Brazil because Brazil isn't exactly deeply involved beyond its immediate region. That's great in a lot of ways for Brazil, but it's not exactly an endorsement of them being likely to be especially well informed of the prospects of war in Ukraine.
> The ambassador lives in Ukraine
Which would make him a very good source on whether there is active fighting in his immediate vicinity, but beyond that...?
> and is definitely much more aware of the real situation than any one of us getting fed Fox News, CNN, the BBC or The Guardian from our couches.
He’s probably reading the same communiques from the governments more directly involved and much of the same media coverage based on those communiques as everyone not in one of the involved countries is seeing.
> Brazilian intelligence/spy services are perhaps not at the same level as the US's or Russia's but they're far from useless.
Probably not, but also probably aren't really historically intensely focussed on the security situation in Eastern Europe.