The line of deconfliction established this week between the United States and Russia is a bilateral “level of divergence between the United States and Russia,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday.
The line is operated by US European Command under the command of General Todd Walters, Commander of US European Command,
“It is administered as a bilateral level of conflict between the United States and Russia, which is why it is being handled by the headquarters of the European Command, not by General Walters under the auspices of NATO,” Kirby said.
Kirby said the line of deconfliction was valuable “to reduce the risk of miscalculations and to be able to communicate in real time if necessary, especially now that airspace over Ukraine is being challenged by both Russian and Ukrainian aircraft.”
The hotline is “at a lower operational level,” Kirby said.
“He is mainly served by staff at the European Command headquarters,” he continued.
More background: The deconfiguration hotline set up this week between the United States and Russia is working in its original setup, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Friday.
The phone line was working during the initial test call the United States made with Russia, the official said.
“He is in place, the Russians confirmed it, in our initial test they answered the phone, so we know that they know who is calling and that at least, in terms of the initial initiation of this, the setting so far works and they answered the line “Said the employee.
The drafting of the agreement was particularly remarkable because Pentagon officials have said so far that they have not had any direct communication with Russian counterparts since the invasion.
Since the end of last month, there have been attempts to establish a communication line. Defense Minister Lloyd Austin last spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on February 18. The two also spoke a week earlier. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Mili, last spoke with Russian Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov on February 11.
The United States has explicitly rejected any no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying it will put American pilots in a combat scenario to enforce such a plan. But the door is not closed to a potential future airborne humanitarian corridor to ensure the safe flight of humanitarian supplies, military action has ceased, officials said.
A deconflict protocol has been in place for several years between US and Russian forces in Syria. For the most part, this worked, although U.S. officials complained several times that the Russians had not given enough advance warning of their operations. The United States has not provided Russia with details, but has recently been notified when US planes will operate in a wide area of northeastern Syria.