US Defense Secretary: I haven’t been able to call the Russian defense minister for two months
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a budget hearing in the US Senate that he had not been able to contact his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, since mid-February.
“Chairman (Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley and I have been regularly trying to contact our colleagues in Russia to ensure that the dialogue continues, from mid-February. We haven’t been very successful with that because the Russians aren’t responding.”
Earlier, the Supreme Commander of the NATO Armed Forces in Europe, American General Todd Walters, spoke about the lack of communication with his colleagues from the Russian Federation.
According to Walters, for the past 90 days he has tried to contact his Russian colleagues, but to no avail. The general said earlier that “these contacts have been cut off.”
Prior to this, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also stated that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov were refusing to communicate with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
