The United States and Russia have ways to manage nuclear risks through talks between intelligence agencies, a senior US diplomat told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti in a video released Monday.
The comments from Elizabeth Rood, Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Moscow, come after CIA director Bill Burns met with his Russian intelligence counterpart, Sergey Naryshkin, in Turkey earlier this month.
“The United States has channels for managing risk with the Russian Federation, particularly nuclear risks and that was the purpose of CIA director Burns’ meeting with his Russian counterpart,” Rood said. “Director Burns did not negotiate anything and he did not discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.”
The Biden administration has dispatched Burns several times over the past year for talks with the Russians, using the veteran diplomat and former US ambassador to Russia as a key intermediary as US-Russia relations have continued to decline.
“The United States, as we have said, has put a significant proposal on the table. We have followed up on that proposal and we have proposed alternatives,” she said. “Unfortunately, so far, the Russian Federation has not provided a serious response to those proposals.”
Rumours have been rife that the meeting between the head of America’s premier Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, William Burns and the Head of the Russian FSB, had discussed settlement terms for the war of aggression against Ukraine.
The rebuttal becomes necessary as the United States of America has been Ukraine’s staunchest ally during the course of the ongoing invasion by Russian forces.
Meanwhile, Russian shelling hit Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, a local Ukrainian official said Monday.
Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said in a Telegram post there were no casualties but three communities near the city of Nikopol were hit with heavy artillery.
