Austin to Shoigu: "Come on, man, stop this....war."

The best bit of news today is that Lloyd Austin, US defence secretary, spoke on the phone to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoigu, and as far as I know neither one slammed the phone down on the other. The read-out of their phone call, the first since mid-February, ie before the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine, provided the barest amount of detail. Austin asked Shoigu for a ceasefire and then said it was important for the two of them to keep contact. The first request was no doubt pushed to one side by the veteran Shoigu, but the second one presumably met with a positive answer because Shoigu, despite his concrete face, knows full well that it's better for the world if the two of them stay in touch to make sure there are no miscalculations in the future as the war drags on. If Austin and Shoigu have a chat every now and again that's very good news. What I hope Austin, a former four-star general, was able to say to Shoigu, a Russian army general, was something ony fellow generals can talk about: the dangers of wars getting out of hand. There has been too much talk in recent weeks about the possibility of the war going nuclear. Austin and Shoigu know that this is crazy talk. Once the nuclear button has been pressed, annihilation follows. So I hope Austin said something like: "Hey, come on, man, this kind of talk is irresponsible. We are both nuclear powers and therefore have huge responsbilities for the whole world. So keep the rhetoric cool and for heaven's sake let's find a way out of this ....war." Shoigu of course will be mindful that whatever he says on the phone will be relaid to his Kremlin boss, but hopefully Austin came away with a little more hope than before he picked up the phone.