Top US general speaks with Russian counterpart amid false flag fears

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley on Monday spoke with his Russian counterpart in a rare call amid fears that Moscow is looking to escalate its war in Ukraine. 

Milley and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, discussed “several security-related issues of concern” and agreed to keep lines of communication open, the Pentagon said in a statement. 

Further details were not provided.  

The call, the first between the two since May, comes on the heels of a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. That call was the second in three days between the two, after they spoke on Friday, also the first time since May.  

Moscow didn’t provide details of that call, though it noted that Shoigu, in a call with French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, “discussed the situation in Ukraine, which is rapidly deteriorating” and “trending towards further uncontrolled escalation.” 

The flurry of conversations comes as Russia claims that Ukraine is planning to use a dirty bomb on its own soil. Western officials fear the accusation could be an excuse for the Kremlin to set off an attack in Ukraine and use it as a so-called false flag operation to further its war in the country.   

The top diplomats in the United States, France and the United Kingdom earlier rejected “Russia’s transparently false allegations.” 

“We have seen in the past that the Russians have, on occasion, blamed others for things that they were planning to do,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday.  

“We don’t have any indication that that’s the case right now. But, it is a play that we have seen before,” he said.