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By Gram Slattery and Emma Farge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian participants have met in Switzerland for unofficial talks about the Ukraine war in recent months, including as recently as last week, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
While the attendees have diplomatic and security experience, they are not government officials and it was not immediately clear if any were sent by their governments, two of the sources said. The sources declined to identify the attendees.
The sources described the talks as a side channel with some contacts occurring during the transition period following U.S. President Donald Trump's Nov. 5 election victory.
At least a small number of advisers to Trump are aware of the encounters, said one of the sources, who had direct knowledge of the matter.
Many other details remain unclear, including whether Ukrainians were present, when the encounters began and what the meetings' agendas covered.
But the previously undisclosed meetings highlight behind-the-scenes U.S. and Russian efforts to explore ways to end the Ukraine war despite a near-freeze on official contact under Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
Trump, in office for just a month, has upended the U.S. approach toward the three-year-old Ukraine conflict, engaging directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pushing for a quick deal to end the war.
On Tuesday, top U.S. officials met with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
One of the sources described the Switzerland talks as "Track Two" discussions - diplomatic parlance for unofficial dialogue geared toward improving communication and floating ideas, rather than developing concrete proposals.
The White House National Security Council, the Ukrainian government and Russia's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The Swiss foreign ministry said meetings are regularly held in Switzerland between parties involved in the Ukraine conflict on a Track Two basis, and that it was informed of them.
Organized by non-state actors, they enabled exchanges not directly involving governments, it said in a statement.
"These activities help to sustain diplomatic efforts relating to the conflict," the ministry said.
Two of the sources said at least one encounter took place in Geneva during last week's Munich Security Conference, a gathering of international political leaders and security chiefs in the German city.
Reuters reported last year on separate Track Two talks in 2023 and early 2024, when Putin sent signals that he was willing to consider a ceasefire in Ukraine. Those talks appeared to come to nothing.
Historically, Track Two talks have helped build dialogue among deeply distrustful counterparties in the hope that better communication might lead to diplomatic breakthroughs.
In 2023, NBC reported that former U.S. national security officials held secret talks with Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin, with some members eventually meeting with Lavrov, the foreign minister.
One of the sources suggested Track Two talks may have lost much of their relevance as U.S. and Russian officials have established official channels of dialogue in recent weeks.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington and Emma Farge in Geneva; Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
