US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the White House is keeping communication channels open with Moscow to avoid the possibility of a nuclear disaster, after the Wall Street Journal reported that he held confidential talks with senior Russian officials in hopes of reducing the risk of that the war in Ukraine will expand or turn into a nuclear conflict.

• “We did it when we needed to clear up potential misunderstandings and try to reduce the risk and reduce the likelihood of a catastrophe such as the potential use of nuclear weapons,” Jake Sullivan said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York. writes The Guardian.

The Wall Street Journal wrote that Jake Sullivan would hold secret talks with high-ranking Russian officials, hoping to reduce the risk that the war in Ukraine would expand or turn into a nuclear conflict.

The paper cited U.S. and allied officials as saying that Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s top national security adviser, had held confidential talks in recent months with Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov and Russian Security Council Secretary Mykola Patrushev that were not made public, Reuters reported. , quoted by Agerpres. The White House declined to comment on the Wall Street Journal report, responding to questions about it with a statement from National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson: “People support a lot of things.”

The Wall Street Journal said the officials it cited did not provide dates or the number of phone calls that may have taken place between the two sides, with few high-level contacts between U.S. and Russian officials made public in recent months as Washington insists any negotiations. the end of the war in Ukraine between Moscow and Kyiv.

The Russian-American talks, reported by the Wall Street Journal, came as the West accused Moscow of increasing nuclear rhetoric, most recently accusing Kyiv, without providing evidence, of plans to use “dirty bombs.” Kyiv denies that it has such intentions, and the US and other Western powers have said that it was Russia that could actually have planned such an attack, which it could use as a pretext for escalating the conflict.

Jake Sullivan visited Kyiv on Friday, where he promised Washington’s “firm and unwavering” support for Ukraine.