Defense chiefs hold talks on Ukraine

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW — Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu spoke with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday for the second time in three days and held a flurry of calls with three other counterparts from NATO countries.

Moscow provided no details on the conversation with Austin, which came after the two men spoke on Friday for the first time since May. Its readouts on the other calls said Shoigu had said the situation in Ukraine was worsening.

"They discussed the situation in Ukraine, which is rapidly deteriorating," the Russian Defense Ministry said of Shoigu's call with French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu. "It is trending toward further uncontrolled escalation."

Shoigu also spoke separately to Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Britain's Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace.

Shoigu told his French, Turkish and British counterparts of Moscow's concern that Ukraine could detonate a "dirty bomb", a device laced with radioactive material.

The Pentagon's readout of the call said Austin told Shoigu he "rejected any pretext for Russian escalation".Austin also reaffirmed the "value of continued communication".

The White House National Security Council rejected Shoigu's allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.

In a joint statement after the talks, Britain, France and the United States said they were committed to supporting Ukraine "for as long as it takes".

The conversations showed that Russia and members of the US-led NATO alliance are actively maintaining channels of communication at a time of rising international concern about a possible nuclear escalation.

US President Joe Biden said the world is closer to "Armageddon "than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Nuclear exercise

Last week, NATO launched its annual nuclear deterrence exercise and said it expects Russia to hold drills shortly to test the readiness of its own nuclear forces.

A top Russian diplomat was quoted after the Shoigu-Austin call on Friday as saying that "misunderstandings must be cleared up so that there are no accidents".

After Sunday's call, Lecornu said he had reaffirmed France's desire for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, and that Paris refused to get drawn into any form of escalation.

There is concern that support from Ukraine's allies in Europe might be eroded due to soaring energy costs as winter approaches.

Meanwhile, Iran announced on Sunday a contract with Russia to supply it with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid Western sanctions, local media reported.

"Currently, 85 percent of the facilities and equipment needed by the gas industry are built inside the country, and based on this capability, a contract has recently been signed to export 40 Iranian-made turbines to Russia," Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company's CEO Reza Noushadi was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry's news agency Shana.

Noushadi said US sanctions on Russia are aimed at excluding Moscow from the gas market.

"In recent years, the United States has widely set up LNG production plants, and recently, with the all-out embargo on Russia and then the explosion in the Nord Stream gas pipeline, it effectively eliminated one of its biggest competitors in gas exports," he said.

Russia on Monday accused Western countries of having "essentially stolen" its gold and foreign exchange reserves via sanctions.

Asked by reporters about a European Union proposal to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "In general, a large part of our assets have been essentially stolen by specific Western countries."

Unprecedented Western sanctions have frozen around half of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves, which stood near $640 billion before the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis on Feb 24.

Agencies via Xinhua