The United States and Russian officials have held talks over the need to reduce the risk of an extended war that could escalate into nuclear blow outs.
According to WSJ reports, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan President Joe Biden’s top held confidential conversations in recent months with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Sullivan’s counterpart, that were not disclosed publicly.
Few high-level contacts between US and Russian officials have been made public in recent months as Washington has insisted that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine be held between Moscow and Kyiv.
The reported conversations took place as the West has accused Moscow of ramping up nuclear rhetoric, most recently by repeatedly accusing Kyiv of planning to use a radioactive “dirty bomb,” without offering evidence.
Kyiv has denied having such a plan and the United States and other Western nations have said Russia could be planning to orchestrate such an attack itself and use it as a pretext to escalate the conflict.
Russia in turn has accused the West of “encouraging provocations.”
Sullivan traveled to Kyiv on Friday and pledged Washington’s “unwavering and unflinching” support for Ukraine.
