U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd  Austin  at meeting with NATO (Credit: NATO.int)

By   Gary    Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

WASHINGTON    DC  –  PENTAGON  –   U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin apparently initiated a telephone call with Russia’s  Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday setting up the first time the two top military leaders have spoken since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.  A senior U.S. defense official confirmed Friday after the call had taken place that Austin reached out to the Russian defense minister and arranged the phone conversation that lasted about one hour.  During the call with his Russian counterpart, Secretary Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication, according to readout released by the Pentagon.  Specific details about what the two military leaders discussed was not disclosed by the Pentagon.  “I’m not going to provide more — much more detail than was in the readout.  That was — it…I’m just not going to go much beyond the readout, in terms of content,”  the senior defense official said.    “The phone call lasted about an hour, it was requested by the Secretary, he initiated it, and both leaders had a chance to  talk back and forth with one another, but I’m not going to get any more into the context of it.”

Russia’s top military leaders Reportedly Refused to speak with their American counterparts Before This call 

When  asked whether there would be future conversations between Austin and Shoigu,  the defense official said:  “And as for whether they’re going to speak again, I mean, the secretary did, you know, express an interest in keeping the line of communication open.  So I mean, he did make that — he did make that point.”  The senior defense official took that to mean that “our takeaway was that the message was received with respect to keeping the lines open.”

Russia’s  Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (Credit: Wikipedia Commons) 

The senior  U.S. defense official added that: 

 “I think it’s safe to say that the secretary continues to have concerns about what’s going on in Ukraine, and I don’t believe the call — while he believes it was important to make that call and that he still believes it’s important to have lines of communication open directly with Minister Shoigu and the Russian ministry, it’s not — the call itself didn’t — it didn’t specifically solve any acute issues or lead — or lead to a direct change in what the Russians are — in what the Russians are doing or what they’re saying.”