The Americans are in secret negotiations with the Russians over the end of the war in Ukraine

A group of former top US national security officials have held secret talks with Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin, as well as the country's top diplomat, to lay the groundwork for possible negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The edition told in more detail NBC News.

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For example, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke for several hours with members of the group in New York in April, four former and two current officials said.

On the agenda of the April meeting were some of the most pressing issues of the war in Ukraine, such as the fate of Russian-held territory that Ukraine may never be able to liberate, and the search for an elusive diplomatic outlet that would be acceptable to both sides.

Sitting next to Lavrov, according to current and former officials, was Richard Haas, a former diplomat and outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations. The group was joined by Europe expert Charles Kupchan and Russia expert Thomas Graham, former White House and State Department officials who are members of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Former U.S. officials either did not respond to NBC News's requests for comment or declined to comment on the entry. All sources declined to give their names to talk about conversations that were supposed to remain confidential.

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Among the goals, they say, is to keep channels of communication with Russia open where possible and to determine where there might be room for future negotiations, compromises and diplomacy to end the war.

The discussions took place with the knowledge of, but not at the direction of, the administration of US President Joe Biden, and former officials who attended the meeting with Lavrov subsequently informed the White House National Security Council of what had happened.

The discussions are known in diplomatic jargon as “track two diplomacy”—a form of informal interaction involving private individuals who are not currently in government or, in the case of the meeting with Lavrov, involved in one of the parties. They occur because formal, high-level diplomatic contacts between the U.S. and Russian governments on Ukraine have been few and far between.

It is not clear how often the discussions took place and whether they are part of a single organized effort.

But on the American side, some former Pentagon officials were involved in the discussions, including Mary Beth Long, a former assistant to the head of the US Department of Defense with extensive experience in NATO matters.

As part of the effort, at least one former U.S. official traveled to Russia to discuss the war in Ukraine, two sources said.

In addition to Lavrov, the discussions on the Russian side included scientists, leaders of major think tanks or research institutes, and other representatives of the Russian foreign policy sphere, who are believed to be listened to by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sources, citing concerns for their safety, declined to name the Russian participants by name.

An employee of the Office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not comment on specific news reports based on unnamed sources, but their general position remained the same.

“Our position is unchanged – the fate of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. The President and all our officials have spoken about this many times. Not anonymously, but quite specifically and publicly,” he stressed.

The talks come amid growing signs that the US and its allies want Moscow and Kyiv to move to peace talks in the fall, after Ukraine's counter-offensive is over.

During a secret trip to Kyiv in May, CIA Director William Burns heard from Ukrainian officials about the prospect of pushing Moscow into peace talks by the end of the year. The upcoming U.S. presidential election has heightened the urgency of ending the war amid fears that Republicans will cut support for Ukraine.

The April meeting with Lavrov took place during a rare and brief visit by a Russian diplomat to the United States to chair the UN Security Council.

Around the same time, Haas and Kupchan wrote a long article in Foreign Affairs, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. It outlined what they called "a plan to move from the battlefield to the negotiating table."

In an article titled "The West Needs a New Strategy on Ukraine," Haas and Kupchan predicted that a stalemate could emerge after a Ukrainian counter-offensive and recommended that the US begin laying the groundwork for a ceasefire proposal in which both Russia and Ukraine withdraw troops from the line. front "virtually creating a demilitarized zone."

“A neutral organization—whether the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe—will send observers to enforce the ceasefire and troop withdrawal,” former US officials wrote. “If the ceasefire takes place, peace negotiations must follow.”

The key question is whether former U.S. officials will continue negotiations after last month's armed uprising against the Putin government, orchestrated by Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, that clouded the picture of how power influences events. The discussions took place in parallel with direct US-Russian talks about the detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich.

Track XNUMX negotiations have long played an important role in US diplomacy, including on arms control issues, often providing a less formal opportunity to test ideas in parallel with formal negotiations between governments.

In 1994, President Jimmy Carter traveled to Pyongyang, North Korea, as a private citizen to stop North Korea's nuclear program, a trip that became a major headache for the Bill Clinton administration.

However, in the context of the war in Ukraine, the notion that former US officials interacted informally with Russians has splintered the community of US diplomats, international scholars, and national security specialists.

“I worry about what messages and signals these negotiations might send. It looks like we're desperate for a deal, said Bradley Bowman, a former U.S. Army officer and Senate aide who studies politico-military issues at the Washington-based Support Foundation. “Now we need to put pressure on Putin.”

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Michael McFaul, who was the US ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration, said he was skeptical that there are any individuals in Russia these days with direct access to Putin who could act as unofficial go-betweens.

In his view, discussing solutions to the war without Ukrainians at the negotiating table could undermine the Biden administration's assertion that Ukraine's future will not be decided by behind-the-scenes deals between major powers.

“If you have negotiations on how to end the war, Ukrainians must be there,” McFaul said.

Matt Dimmick, former director of the National Security Council for Russia and Eastern Europe, said that even discussing potential deals with Russia without Ukraine's involvement could ultimately undermine Kyiv's influence.

“Ukraine does not need or want mediators to start coming in and working out ceasefire solutions and then telling Europe and the United States to push Ukraine in that direction,” Dimmick noted. “Ukraine understands that its path to a secure future goes straight through Russian defenses and leaves Russia no choice but to withdraw from Ukrainian territories.”

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