According to unnamed sources, senior White House and Kremlin officials have been conducting confidential talks aimed at reducing the risk of escalating the war in Ukraine and to warn Russia against using nuclear weapons. The talks have reportedly been conducted between U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign-policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, as well as Nikolai Patrushev who is Sullivan’s Russian counterpart. The White House nor the Kremlin have commented on the reports of the more recent conversations between Sullivan and Patrushev.
