U.S. and Russia Establish Military Deconfliction Channel

The U.S. Department of Defense and the Russian Defense Ministry have established a communications channel in order to avoid any unintended encounters in the vicinity of Ukraine, according to unnamed officials quoted in news reports yesterday. “The Department of the Defense recently established a deconfliction line with the Russian Ministry of Defense on March 1 for the purposes of preventing miscalculation, military incidents, and escalation,” a senior U.S. defense official said in a statement, reported CNN. “The United States retains a number of channels to discuss critical security issues with the Russians during a contingency or emergency.”