(Moscow) Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and American Defense Minister Lloyd Austin discussed the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday during a telephone conversation, the Russian ministry announced.
Mr. Beloussov “underlined the risk of a further escalation of the situation linked to the supply of American weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
The call was made at the initiative of the United States, he said.
The Pentagon also reported this conversation between the two men, the first since the appointment of Mr. Beloussov on May 12.
Mr. Austin “stressed the importance of maintaining lines of communication in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” said U.S. Department of Defense spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder.
Russia considers that Washington has become a party to the conflict in Ukraine by allowing Kyiv to use long-range missiles against Russian regions and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov threatened the United States with “consequences,” and Russian diplomacy summoned the American ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, to warn her that “such actions by Washington, […] authorizing strikes inside Russian territory would not go unpunished.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, threatened to deliver equivalent weapons to enemies of the West so that they could attack their interests in other regions of the world.