NBC News reported Thursday that a group of former administration national security officials held closed consultations with representatives of the Russian side in an effort to lay the groundwork for possible negotiations to end the war of Russia against Ukraine.
NBC News cites sources familiar with the aforementioned informal contacts, which they say were conducted without direction from the White House but with the knowledge of members of the Joe Biden administration.
At one such meeting in April, four former and two current officials told NBC News, outgoing Council on Foreign Relations chief Richard Haass and former administration officials Charles Kupchan and Thomas Graham spoke for hours in New York with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The former US officials in question either did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment or declined to comment. All sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of the goals of the talks, they say, is to keep communication channels with Russia open as much as possible and to explore future opportunities for negotiations, compromise and diplomacy to end the war.
Several former Pentagon officials, including former Undersecretary of Defense Mary Beth Long, were involved on the US side, two people with knowledge of the talks said.
A White House National Security Council spokesman declined to comment.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that reports of behind-the-scenes talks were “disinformation”.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said he would not comment on the reports, but Ukraine’s position remains unchanged – “the fate of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
“Our position is unchanged – the fate of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. The President and all our official speakers have spoken about it on several occasions. Not anonymously, but quite concretely and publicly,” he said.
Recall that Washington officials have repeatedly stressed that negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation will not take place.
Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said he was skeptical that there are now people in Russia who have direct access to Putin and can serve as informal intermediaries in such negotiations.
He also recalled that discussing decisions on a war without a Ukrainian side at the negotiating table goes against the position of the Biden administration that the future of Ukraine will not be decided by agreements in backstage.
“If there are parallel informal negotiations on how to end the war, then the Ukrainian side should be involved in them,” McFaul said, stressing that he himself had not been involved in such discussions.
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Matt Dimmick, former director for Russia and Eastern Europe at the National Security Council, said talks of potential deals with Russia without Ukraine’s leading role are aimed at undermining influence from Kiev.
“Ukraine…does not need mediators who will step in and find solutions for a ceasefire and then convince Europe and the United States to push Ukraine in that direction,” he said. Dimmik. “Ukraine understands that its path to a secure future is through Russian defense lines, leaving Russia with no choice but to find its own path out of Ukraine.”
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