US and Russian defense chiefs have a rare phone conversation over the Ukraine war

• The Ukraine war came up in a rare phone conversation between Russian and US defense ministers.
• Russia’s defense ministry says “topical issues of world security” were discussed.
• The US Defense Secretary stressed the importance of keeping channels of communication open.

According to both countries’ defense ministries, the Ukraine war came up in a rare phone conversation between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Pentagon on Friday declined to provide further details, other than to note that Austin, who started the call, stressed the importance of keeping channels of communication open in light of the conflict in Ukraine.

According to Russia’s defense ministry, “topical issues of world security, particularly the situation in Ukraine, were discussed.”

Only the second call between the ministers since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24 generated several specifics about their conversation on Friday.

Austin had asked Moscow to enact a “immediate ceasefire” back in May.

The call was made as pro-Kremlin officials in eastern Ukraine said they were transforming Kherson, a city in the country’s south, into a “fortress” as Kyiv’s soldiers advanced. Since beginning its attack to reclaim Kherson in September, Ukraine claimed to have retaken a total of 88 towns and villages in the area, the government announced on Friday.

With the help of Western armaments, Kyiv’s forces have been moving closer to Kherson, the largest city in the area, along the west bank of the Dnieper river in recent weeks.

Following a broad counteroffensive in the northeast Kharkiv region that severely hampered Russia’s supply routes and logistics corridors in the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine is pushing forward towards the south.

Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Moscow is “doubling and tripling down” on its attack against Ukraine and that Washington has not observed any indication that it is interested in stopping. Austin did state that the US and Russia would continue to communicate.

“At this time, we have not observed any proof of that. Russia, on the other hand, is stepping up its aggression, Blinken said during a joint news conference with Catherine Colonna of France.

Blinken drew attention to recent Russian assaults on Ukrainian power plants and other civilian targets, as well as the mobilization of troops who Blinken dubbed “horribly, cannon fodder that Putin is trying to send into the fight.”

The main distinction is that Ukrainians fight for their nation, their homeland, and their future. The sooner President Putin realizes that and decides that Russia is not, the sooner we will be able to put an end to this war, Blinken stated.

Ukraine’s energy minister claimed that since October 10, Russian airstrikes had damaged billions of dollars’ worth of thermal generation capacity in Ukraine, however not all of those power plants have entirely ceased operation.

German Galushchenko told the Reuters news agency that after attacks that had damaged 30–40 percent of the power system, Ukraine could need to import electricity to get through the winter and that traders were already in talks with suppliers.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, pleaded with the West on Friday to caution Russia against detonating a dam in southern Ukraine, which would result in catastrophic floods.

In what Kyiv officials described as a warning that Russia would blow up the dam and blame Ukraine, Russia has accused Ukraine of rocketing the dam and intending to destroy it.

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