How are the Russian-US relations since the outbreak of the Ukraine war look like?
A communications line established between the militaries of the United States and Russia at the start of Moscow’s war on Ukraine has only been used once so far, a US official told Reuters.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the United States had made the call via a de-confliction line to express concerns about Russian military operations near critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine.
Reuters has the first to publish the news of the use of this line.
Few details are known surrounding the specific incident that led to the connection via this line linking the US Army’s European Command to the Russian National Defense Management Center.
The official declined to give further details, but said it was not used when a missile misfired in NATO member Poland on November 15, killing two.
Although the US official declined to specify which Russian activity concerned the US, incidents involving Russian combat in the vicinity of a number of important Ukrainian infrastructure facilities have been publicly acknowledged.
This includes Russian operations around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest in Europe, which is under Russian control.
Ukraine also expressed its fears that Russia might blow up the Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds huge reserves of water in southern Ukraine.
This line of communication is just one of the means of communication between the US and Russian armies.
Other military channels include rare high-level talks between US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, have also spoken on two occasions since the war began.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director Bill Burns have also had contacts with Russian officials.
In response to a request for comment on the line of communications, the Pentagon merely said that it maintains several channels to discuss critical security issues with the Russians in emergency situations or for the purposes of preventing miscalculation, military incidents, and escalation.
The Russian Defense Ministry and Russia’s embassy in Washington didn’t respond to requests for comment.
