The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, last week had an “extremely unusual” telephone conversation with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces (equivalent to the position of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces), General Charles Brown, reported ABC and The New York Times. h.
According to ABC, Gerasimov called Brown on November 27 and warned about the upcoming tests of hypersonic missiles from Russian ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
On December 3, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that the test took place in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the New York Times, Gerasimov told his American counterpart that the test of the new Oreshnik missile was planned long before the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS long-range missiles to hit targets on Russian territory. And Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the launch of “Oreshnik” as a response to the use of American ATACMS by Ukraine on Russian territory.
The New York Times notes that Brown’s press secretary Jeril Dorsey confirmed the phone conversation with Gerasimov, while stressing that the content of the conversation was not being released by the Pentagon at Gerasimov’s request.
ABC and the New York Times reported details of the conversation, citing unnamed Pentagon sources.
Moscow has not yet reported anything about the telephone conversation, the BBC notes.