WASHINGTON, DC —
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan
spoke Wednesday with General Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the Russian
Security Council, in the first high-level contact between Washington and Moscow
since Russia invaded Ukraine, the White House said.
اضافة اعلان
Sullivan reiterated
US opposition to the
invasion, which began on February 24, and told Patrushev "that if Russia
is serious about diplomacy then Moscow should stop attacking Ukrainian cities
and towns", the statement said.
He "clearly laid out the United States’
commitment to continue imposing costs on Russia", to support Ukraine's
defense and to reinforce
NATO's eastern flank, "in continued full
coordination with our allies and partners".
The US and NATO have for days now voiced
fears that Russia could launch a chemical or biological attack in Ukraine, and
Sullivan "warned General Patrushev about the consequences and implications
of any possible Russian decision" to do so.
The statement came shortly after Ukrainian
President
Volodymyr Zelensky made a powerful virtual address to the US Congress
in which he invoked the horror of the war and urged Washington to reconsider
his plea for a no-fly zone.
Biden has so far bluntly ruled out any
no-fly zone, warning that it could lead NATO into to "World War III"
with
nuclear-armed Russia.
Instead he has imposed crippling sanctions on
Russia and poured money and aid into Ukraine.
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