White House confirms negotiations on Ukraine between Lavrov and ex-US officials

John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the White House National Security Council, confirmed an NBC News report that secret talks were held in New York in April between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and former US senior national security officials to lay the groundwork for a peace settlement in Ukraine.

Kirby stressed that Washington has not authorized negotiations and does not support negotiations on Ukraine without the participation of Ukraine, Reuters reports.

“But I want to be clear that these talks were not encouraged or initiated by us, and we did not actively support them in any way. As the president (USA Joe Biden) said, there is nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Kirby said in an interview with CBS News.

On July 6, NBC News, citing six sources, reported that in April in New York, a group of former high-ranking US officials held a series of negotiations with representatives of the Russian government. Sergei Lavrov attended at least once, the channel reports.

NBC sources claim that the conversation with the participation of the Russian foreign minister lasted several hours. The negotiations allegedly discussed diplomatic options for stopping the armed conflict in Ukraine and the fate of the territories occupied by Russian troops. It is alleged that the meeting with Sergei Lavrov was attended, in particular, by Richard Haas, a former adviser to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former adviser to US President George W. Bush on Russia and Eurasia Thomas Graham.