RUSSIAN OFFICIALS HELD TALKS WITH A BIDEN AIDE AMID NUCLEAR TENSIONS

Mon 07 November 2022:

According to the Wall Street Journal, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with top Russian officials in the aim of reducing the chance that the Ukraine crisis may spill over or escalate into a nuclear warfare, Reuters reported.

According to the newspaper, Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s senior national security advisor, had clandestine meetings with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Sullivan’s counterpart, in recent months that were not made public.

The White House declined to comment on the report, responding to questions about the story only with a statement attributed to National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson: “People claim a lot of things.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, officials did not reveal dates or numbers of calls.

Few high-level interactions between US and Russian officials have been made public in recent months, as Washington has insisted that any peace discussions in Ukraine take place between Moscow and Kiev.

The claimed talks occurred at a time when the West has accused Moscow of raising nuclear rhetoric, most recently by accusing Kiev of plotting to use a radioactive “dirty bomb” without providing evidence.

Ukraine has denied having such a plan, and the US and other Western nations have suggested that Russia may be attempting to organize such an attack and use it as a pretext to intensify the conflict.

On Friday, Sullivan visited Kyiv and vowed Washington’s “unwavering and unflinching” support for Ukraine.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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