The last known time Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu was on February 18, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley last spoke with Russian Chief of Staff Gen. Valery on February 11 Gerasimov, CNN previously reported.
“Over the past month, Secretary of State Austin and Chairman Milley have sought and continue to seek talks with their Russian counterparts. Minister Shoigu and General Gerasimov have so far declined to become involved at this crucial time,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
The US military maintained a conflict-resolution phone line with the Russian military, which the Pentagon said was tested daily but not used on a business basis. The reason for the decon conflict line is to try to avoid miscalculations that could escalate Russia’s war with Ukraine, which is on the doorstep of NATO territory.
The Washington Post first reported Austin and Milley’s attempts to contact their Russian counterparts. There have been some contacts between American and Russian officials since the beginning of the war. CNN reported that a meeting between Russian military officials and two US defense attachés took place at the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow last week. The meeting saw an “outburst” of emotion from a normally stoic Russian general, who US officials said they had never seen their Russian counterparts at an official meeting, according to a CNN-verified US reading of the meeting early on This week, the Russian State Department subpoenaed US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan after US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.” During the meeting, Sullivan expressed concern about US citizens currently being detained in Russia. Last week, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke to his Russian counterpart about what has been the highest-level contact between the two countries since the beginning of the war.
The US believes Russia’s refusal to hold high-level meetings stems from concerns in the Kremlin that the meetings would risk a tacit admission that an anomalous situation exists in Ukraine, the US ad said.
While the heads of state of several US allies – including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – have spoken to Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last month, Biden has not.
After Biden last week called Putin a “war criminal” amid mounting civilian casualties in Ukraine, Russia’s foreign ministry said Biden’s remark “brought Russian-US relations to the brink of rupture.” On Wednesday, the State Department formally accused Russian forces of war crimes for targeting civilians.