The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the United States had made the call via a “deconfliction” line to express concerns about Russian military operations near critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine.
Few details are known surrounding the specific incident that led to communication on this line, which connects 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 erroneously fell in NATO member Poland on November 15, killing two people.
Although the US official declined to specify which Russian activity aroused concern in the United States, 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 a huge reservoir of water in southern Ukraine.
In response to a request for comment on the line of communications, the Pentagon said only 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.”
Multiple channels of communication
And the aforementioned line of communication is only one of the existing means of communication between the American and Russian armies.
Other military channels include rare high-level talks between US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart, 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.
In the same vein, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director Bill Burns made contacts with Russian officials.
#line #communication #Russian #armies.