Senior Biden staffer involved in ‘confidential conversations’ with top Putin aides

President Joe Biden‘s national security adviser is said to be involved in ‘confidential conversations’ with top Putin aides in an effort to prevent nuclear war.

United States officials told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday how Jake Sullivan has been meeting with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Putin, and his direct counterpart, Nikolai Potrushev, to warn against escalating the war in Ukraine — though they will not discuss any potential settlements of the conflict.

Several officials who spoke to the Journal about Sullivan’s discussions with Russian officials have said he is known within the White House for pushing a line of communication with Russia, even when others thought it would be fruitless. 

The White House has previously said maintaining some level of contact with Moscow is imperative for achieving mutual national security interests, especially after Putin warned of using nuclear weapons.

At the same time, though, US officials are also said to be pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to drop his ban on talks with Putin and negotiate an end to the fighting.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has been pushing to keep lines open with Russian officials during the ongoing war in Ukraine. He is pictured here in Ukraine on Friday

US officials have described how Sullivan met over the past several months with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Putin, and his direct counterpart, Nikolai Potrushev, to warn against the risk of escalating the war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned in September that the country might start using nuclear weapons

Biden had originally sought to forge a relationship with Putin when he fist came into office, meeting with him at a summit in Geneva in June 2021.

But by that October, US intelligence indicated that Russian forces were preparing to invade Ukraine. 

The US president then spoke with Putin in December 2021 and again in February 2022 to avert a Russian attack — but his efforts failed when Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Since then, officials say, Sullivan has taken a leading role in coordinating the Biden administration’s policy and plans in response to the war and had been involved in diplomatic efforts.

In fact, when Putin hinted in September that Russia might resort to nuclear weapons, Sullivan said the Biden administration ‘had communicated directly, privately at very high levels to the Kremlin that any use of nuclear weapons will be met with catastrophic consequences for Russia.’

He did not specify at the time how the Biden administration spoke to Russian officials. 

And in a March conversation with Patrushev, Sullivan is sad to have told the Russian official that Moscow’s forces should stop attacking Ukraine cities and towns, and warned the Kremlin not to use chemical or biological weapons.

Russian officials put out a statement in response saying Patrushev stressed ‘the need to stop Washington’s support of neo-Nazis and terrorists in Ukraine, and facilitate the transfer of foreign mercenaries to the conflict zone, as well as refuse to continue supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime.’

President Joe Biden had sought to  forge a relationship with Putin when he fist came into office

Rescuers respond to a Russian missile attack which left a commercial enterprise destroyed on Sunday

Ukrainian servicemen ride an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), as Russia’s attack in Ukraine continues, in Siversk, Donetsk region

Worshippers pray and light candles in St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, on Sunday amid the ongoing war

But Sullivan is not the only one in the Biden administration seeking to make inroads with Russian officials as relations between the two countries worsen.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and several of his counterparts spoke this month with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as Moscow claimed Kyiv was preparing to us a so-called dirty bomb in the ongoing war.

At that meeting, officials say, Austin stressed the importance at the time of maintaining lines of communication. 

Now, Washington DC and Moscow have at least seemed to make some progress in arms control deals.

The two sides are adhering to the New START treaty, which limits long-rang US and Russian nuclear arms, according to the Wall Street Journal, and are planning to hold meetings of the Bilateral Consultative Commission to discuss its implementation.

The goal is to resume inspections of nuclear weapons that were suspended during the pandemic. 

The United States is also said to be privately encouraging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to drop his ban on talks with Putin and negotiate an end to the fighting 

In the meantime, the United States is said to be privately encouraging Zelensky to drop his ban on talks with Putin and negotiate an end to the fighting.

US officials have said that the request by the Biden administration is not to push Ukraine to the negotiating table, but ensure Kyiv maintains the support of its international backers.

People familiar with the discussions are wary that Zelensky’s ban on talks with the Russian President has created concern in parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, where the war’s effects are being felt the most.

Several nations are worried about fueling a war for many years which has already taken a toll on the world economy and had devastating consequences on the cost and availability of food and fuel. 

‘Ukraine fatigue is a real thing for some of our partners,’ one US official told The Washington Post.