Moscow.February 11. INTERFAX - Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces Mark Milley held a telephone conversation on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
"The military leaders discussed topical issues of international security," the Russian military department said in a statement.
The conversation between Gerasimov and Milli took place against the background of the crisis in relations between Russia and NATO.
The day before, Milli had a telephone conversation with the Chief of the General Staff of Belarus Viktor Gulevich.
On February 10, Russia and Belarus began major maneuvers "Allied Resolve-2022". The exercises in Belarus, to which Russia has transferred a number of units of the Eastern Military District with regular weapons, will last until February 20.
Moscow and Minsk announced that the Russian military will return to their permanent deployment points after the exercises.
The United States, other NATO countries and Ukraine announced the concentration of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border and the threat of a Russian invasion.
Moscow stated that Russia has no aggressive plans against Ukraine.
On Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held talks in Moscow with British Defense Minister Ben Wallace.
"The military-political situation in Europe is becoming more and more tense. And far from our fault. We do not quite and do not always understand the reasons for the escalation of this tension. But, nevertheless, we see that it is growing," Shoigu said at talks with the British minister.
Shoigu said he was ready to discuss "topical issues of reducing this tension." "As well as our proposals to the United States of America and NATO on ensuring security in Europe, which we sent in December, received a response in January. Now it's all considered. I think that our response will also follow in the near future," Shoigu said.
After the talks, Wallace said at a press conference that he had received assurances from his Russian colleagues that Russia was not planning to attack Ukraine. "We listened to the assurances given by Mr. Shoigu and Mr. Gerasimov that they would not attack Ukraine, and called for dialogue to resolve any concerns that Russia has," Wallace said.
