The back channel engagement is being done to mantain communication between the US and Russia…
The Ukraine is NOT involved…..
But would have to agree with any plan ….
President Biden has made things clear that he does NOT want things in the conflict to get out of hand….
(Biden the ex-Senator who actually works to make ‘deals’ in almost everything)
One would assume that Biden would go as far as to give the RussianRussian President and out for domestic consumption in his country…
While Zelensky is begging for F-16’s and Abrams tanks and Sweden wants to get into NATO….
One would assume that the American President IS singularly focused on the fact that Russia has a nuclear capability….
Putin isn’t going there….
But Biden is making sure he doesn’t in the ‘Big Picture’….
BTW?
The Ukraine is allowing Russian energy products to flow thru their country….
They ARE doing prisoner swaps….
And allowing Ukraine grain to leave the country by ship…..
A group of former senior U.S. national security officials has held secret talks with prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin — and, in at least one case, with the country’s top diplomat — with the aim of laying the groundwork for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, half a dozen people briefed on the discussions said.
In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrovmet with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials said.
On the agenda were some of the thorniest issues in the war in Ukraine, like the fate of Russian-held territory that Ukraine may never be able to liberate and the search for an elusive diplomatic off-ramp that could be tolerable to both sides.
Meeting with Lavrov were Richard Haass, a former diplomat and the outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, current and former officials said. The group was joined by Europe expert Charles Kupchan and Russia expert Thomas Graham, both former White House and State Department officials who are Council on Foreign Relations fellows.
The former U.S. officials involved either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment on the record. All of the sources declined to be named in order to confirm talks that were intended to be kept confidential.
Among the goals, they said, is to keep channels of communication with Russia open when possible and to feel out where there might be room for future negotiation, compromise and diplomacy over ending the war.
The discussions have taken place with the knowledge of the Biden administration but not at its direction, and the former officials involved in the Lavrov meeting briefed the White House National Security Council afterward, two of the sources said.
The discussions are known in diplomatic parlance as “Track Two diplomacy,” a form of unofficial engagement involving private citizens not in government — or, in the case of the Lavrov meeting, “Track 1.5,” meaning current officials are involved on one end of the conversation. Formal, high-level diplomatic engagements between the U.S. and Russian governments over Ukraine have been few and far between.
It is not clear how frequently the back-channel discussions have taken place, nor whether they are part of a single, organized effort…..
…
On supplying the weapons of War…..
Wall Street Journal: “Behind the deadly front lines where Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are locked in combat, a less-noticed life-or-death battle is raging to keep troops supplied with arms and ammunition. The side that loses that fight is the one that will lose the war. It is a lesson Washington is relearning.”