Hot Phones Between the US and Russia –

Behind the scenes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke on the phone Tuesday with the new Russian Defense Minister, Andrei Belousov. The confirmation comes from the Pentagon, and the news was reported by the New York Times, which cited three American officials, explaining that days earlier Belousov had warned the US of a “secret operation” that Ukraine was preparing against Russia. In particular, the Kremlin official wanted to verify whether this “secret operation” had in some way the green light from the American authorities. If so, there would inevitably have been an escalation of tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Pentagon officials, in addition to ignoring the existence of the operation, also urged Kiev to abandon the planned implementation.

In any case, the call between Belousov and Austin was the first since the Russian economist took over from longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last May, and above all it was the first official contact between the Biden administration and Moscow. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said that Austin “stressed the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.”

The development comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to develop an action plan to achieve peace in Ukraine by the end of November 2024. “I have assigned a task to my administration and our diplomatic team in this regard. I think the plan will be ready by the end of November,” Zelensky said in an interview with Japanese public television NHK. According to Zelensky, the decisive factors will be the strengthening of the Ukrainian army, patience, support for Ukraine – primarily from the United States – and international diplomatic pressure on Russia. The Ukrainian president also said he had received unofficial proposals to freeze the conflict, but stressed that he could not accept them. Zelensky also added that the basis of the action plan will be the issue of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and that this topic will be discussed substantively with the countries concerned. But any negotiation cannot be based only on Kiev’s proposal: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made this clear, speaking about the talks between the heads of diplomacy of Ukraine and China at the press conference of the ASEAN ministerial meeting in Laos.