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The war in Ukraine: The US once used special military communications with Russia

2022-11-28 22:45:12Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The war in Ukraine: The US once used special military communications with Russia
The Pentagon, headquarters of the US Department of Defense

A special line of communication, set up between the United States and Russia's militaries at the start of Moscow's war against Ukraine, has been used only once so far, a US official told Reuters news agency.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States made a call through a special line, known as the "conflict avoidance line," to communicate its concerns about Russian military operations near critical Ukrainian infrastructure. .

Reuters is the first news agency to report on the use of this special line of communication, apart from its use during rehearsals.

Few details are known about the incident, which led to the use of the special communication line connecting the US Army European Command and Russia's National Defense Management Center.

The official declined to elaborate, but said the line was not used when a missile accidentally hit NATO member Poland on Nov. 15, killing two people. The blast in Poland was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile, but Russia was ultimately responsible because it launched the war in late February, NATO officials said.

Although the US official declined to specify which Russian action raised the alarm for the United States, there have been serious incidents that have been talked about publicly, including Russian attacks on critical Ukrainian infrastructure.

These include Russian operations around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which is controlled by Russian forces.

Ukraine has also expressed concern that Russia could blow up the Nova Kakhovka dam, the largest in southern Ukraine. Blowing up the dam would flood settlements around it, including the strategic regional capital of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces retook on November 11.

US-Russia communications have been at the center of attention since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, given the great risk that mistakes by one side could lead to a direct conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries.

SEVERAL METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

The deconfliction line is just one of the ways the US and Russian militaries have to communicate with each other.

Other military channels include rare high-level talks between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The top American and Russian generals, General Mark Milley and Russian Valery Gerasimov, have also spoken twice since the start of the war.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA director Bill Burns have also had contacts with Russian officials.

However, US-Russia relations are at their lowest point since the Cold War, and the US State Department said on Monday that Moscow postponed talks in Cairo aimed at resuming nuclear weapons inspections. The Russian foreign minister confirmed that the talks have been postponed. Neither side gave a reason.

In response to requests for comment about the de-escalation line, the Pentagon said it maintains several channels "to discuss with the Russians vital security issues during an unexpected circumstance or emergency, with the goal of preventing errors in judgment." , military incidents and escalation".

"We are encouraged by recent phone calls between senior Defense Department officials and their Russian counterparts, and we believe that continued dialogue is vital," a Defense Department spokesman said.

The Russian Embassy in Washington and the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow did not respond to requests for comment.

NOT A "COMPLAINER" LINE

When it was announced in March, the Pentagon said the conflict avoidance line was created to avoid unplanned collisions in NATO airspace or on land.

 "It wasn't designed to be a complaint line where we could pick up the phone and express concern about Russia's actions in Ukraine," a senior US official said at the time.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union maintained such lines of communication to varying degrees.

Alexander Vershbow, the former US ambassador to Moscow and former senior Pentagon and NATO official, said the line was created to focus more on day-to-day operations than on more strategic conversations between senior officials such as generals Milley and Gerasimov.

Mr. Vershbow drew the comparison to the much more active de-escalation line in Syria, where American and Russian forces sometimes operate in the same airspace or on the same terrain.

"We have seen this in Syria, where the existence of a direct channel of operational communication can at least clarify intentions during a rapidly developing situation, during a time when perhaps Washington is sleeping," Mr. Vershbow told the Reuters news agency.

The de-escalation line is tested twice a day, with calls made in Russian, a US official told Reuters news agency. A Russian speaker at the United States European Command initiates calls from the German city of Wiesbaden, the official said.

Wiesbaden is also home to the Pentagon's new structure, the Security Assistance Group for Ukraine (SAG-U), which remotely supports the Ukrainian government's efforts to defend itself against attacks by Russian forces.

US officials, who have spoken in the past on condition of anonymity, have said that early in the conflict it was believed that the line could be useful if the United States needed to evacuate Americans from territory occupied by Russian forces in Ukraine.

When the war began, the United States thought that Russia would have the capacity to quickly seize Ukrainian territory, trapping American citizens before they had a chance to leave.

One official had hinted that perhaps the line would also be used in the event that a Russian fighter jet pursued a Ukrainian jet into Polish airspace, or if a Russian missile entered NATO airspace.


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