.SecDef Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley have both tried to reach out to their Russian counterparts, but they’re not interested in talking.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that the Defense Department has not “had a successful attempt to talk to Defense Minister [Sergei] Shoigu and Gen. [Valery] Gerasimov” during a CNN interview on Thursday. The Washington Post was the first to report the failed efforts, and Kirby told the outlet that the Russian leaders “have so far declined to engage.”
The United States has tried to reach out “on several occasions in the last week or 10 days,” he added in the television interview. “We just haven’t been able to reach either of them.”The Biden administration has repeatedly stressed the importance of avoiding a possible escalation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine through its own actions and support for Ukraine.
The Pentagon also postponed a missile test and created a deconfliction line between the U.S. and Russian military officials in efforts to avoid miscommunication. The U.S. checks the line “once or twice a day … just to make sure when we pick it up, the Russians are answering, so far they are,” Kirby added.
Additionally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not attempted to reach out to his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, since the start of the conflict, the Washington Post reported, citing U.S. officials. Blinken on Wednesday declared that the U.S. had seen evidence to support the claim that Russian forces have committed war crimes during their monthlong siege in Ukraine.
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