Russia, US army chiefs hold rare call amid Ukraine escalation

The Russian and US army chiefs held a rare phone call last week amid an escalation on the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry said Thursday.

Direct contact between Moscow and Washington has almost ceased to exist amid Russia's military offensive on Ukraine, and the Kremlin has said it considers the United States a direct participant in the conflict.

The call, between Russia's Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and the US Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown occurred on November 27 and was held at the "initiative of the Russian side," Moscow's defense ministry said.

Russian and US media reported it the was the first call between the pair.

Gerasimov informed Brown about Russian military drills in the eastern Mediterranean, the defense ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

"This information was given with the goal of preventing possible incidents in connection with the presence of US and NATO ships near the area of Russian drills," it said.

Citing a US military spokesperson, the New York Times reported the pair discussed the conflict in Ukraine and Russia's new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile.

Brown also expressed US concern over the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia's army on the battlefield, CNN reported.

Tensions between Russia and the United States have escalated since Donald Trump won the presidential election in November.

The outgoing Joe Biden administration has given Kyiv the green light to fire US-supplied ATACMS missiles on Russian territory, while Russia lowered its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

In response to Kyiv striking Russian border regions with the Western weapons, Russia said it "test fired" a never-before-seen nuclear-capable missile in a strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.