Lloyd Austin initiated the conversation and it was the first such call since March 2023U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attends a press conference during a NATO defence ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File PhotoU.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attends a press conference during a NATO defence ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File PhotoThe US and Russian defense chiefs spoke by telephone on Tuesday in rare communication between the two powers and with tensions rising after Moscow blamed Washington for a deadly Ukraine attack over the weekend on the Russian-annexed Crimea. The two sides gave widely divergent accounts of the conversation - the first one between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Russia's new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, who replaced Sergei Shoigu in May. Russia's Defense Ministry, however, said that Belousov warned Austin of the dangers of continued US arms supplies to Ukraine in the 28-month-old war.
