John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the US National Security Council, said that the meeting between the CIA and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in Ankara focused on keeping communication channels open between the two countries in order to avoid miscalculations.
In response to journalists’ questions at the press conference that Kirby held via closed circuit television, he stressed the importance of the talks between Russia and Ukraine, and that this decision is in the hands of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alone.
At the same time, he cited a previous statement by Zelensky that he: “is not ready for that at a time when the Russian missile strikes continue.”
Kirby continued, “We want to keep communication channels open with Russia, especially at this time, to avoid any strategic miscalculations between Russia and the United States, and Russia and the West.”
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He pointed out that the previous meetings between the Director of the CIA, Bill Burns, and the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, and between the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, and between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, and his Russian counterpart, Valery Gerasimov.
Kirby described Russia’s repeated threats to use nuclear weapons as “irresponsible, and for this reason the United States attaches great importance to keeping communication channels open.”
