Exclusive: Inside A Rare US Meeting With A Russian General In Moscow

Military expert weighs in on Ukraine’s defense against Russia 3:22 (CNN) — A rare face-to-face meeting between Russian and US military officials last week prompted an “outburst” of emotion from a normally stoic Russian general, a “revealing moment.” that Americans present believe hinted at greater morale problems in Russia’s military, according to a US military record of what transpired. The log, which was reviewed by CNN, describes the perspective of the two defense attachés who attended and their own impressions of what they saw and heard. He does not offer a definitive explanation of the behavior of the Russian general. Sensitive meeting records are never made public by the military or intelligence community because they are scrutinized for clues about an adversary’s thinking and intentions. How are Ukrainian troops resisting the Russian invasion? Ex-military explains 3:35 The meeting, held at the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow, is a rare case of Russian and American defense officials sitting in person since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The log describes the meeting as tense, with visible signs of stress on the Russian side. It notes in particular the behavior of Russian Major General Yevgeny Ilyin, deputy head of the main directorate for international cooperation who has a long history of dealings with US officials. In a change from usual practice, Ilyin spoke without notes or set talking points, according to the reading. As the meeting broke up, a US defense attache “casually inquired” about Ilyin’s family roots in Ukraine, and the Russian general’s “stoic demeanor” suddenly turned to blush and agitation, according to the record. The Americans reported that Ilyin answered “yes” and said that he was born in Dnipropetrovsk before moving with his family to Donetsk, where he went to school. But US officials reported that Ilyin later added that the current situation in Ukraine is “tragic and I am very depressed about it,” then left without shaking hands, according to the record. It is not clear why the meeting took place or the circumstances behind it. CNN does not know if there is any additional documentation describing the meeting. The record does not include the names of the US attaches at the meeting, and CNN has not been able to learn their identities. The Pentagon and the State Department declined to comment. CNN has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment. The US team felt, from the record, that Ilyin came close to accusing the US and Ukraine of atrocities against his family. It’s unclear what specifically led them to that conclusion, but one of the attaches said: “The fire in his eyes and his nervous demeanor sent chills down my spine.” The log said that one of the attachés gasped, and both Americans reported that they had never “witnessed such an outburst by their Russian counterparts in an official meeting.” US meetings with Russian officials are often scripted affairs. While it is not clear from the summary what precisely led to Ilyin’s reaction, the two US defense attaches who attended the meeting assessed the general’s reaction as a possible sign of morale problems. “At a minimum, it is clear that morale problems among Russian forces are not limited to front-line troops,” the record concludes. A look at US-Russian military relations The record offers a behind-the-scenes look at a Russian army that failed in its apparent goal of quickly taking Kyiv after launching the invasion last month. Senior US military officials have said publicly and privately that the Russian military’s morale is suffering as it enters the fourth week of its invasion of Ukraine, an invasion that US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin believed was it would be much faster and smoother than it has been. In an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov disputed US assessments that Russian troops had morale problems. “I would probably have to doubt this information,” Peskov said. “You have to doubt it, and you have to think twice about whether it’s true or not.” The Kremlin has continued, since long before the invasion, to refuse direct high-level contact between senior US generals and their Russian counterparts, which makes this meeting all the more interesting. The US has a telephone line of communication with the Russian military that has been tested daily but has not been used. The United States believes the refusal to hold high-level meetings stems from the Kremlin’s concerns that the meetings would show its vulnerability if it allowed such meetings, because it risks tacitly admitting that an abnormal situation exists, according to the reading. Even before the meeting’s remarkable end, US officials reported that Ilyin’s stoicism began to wither at the meeting as the Americans called the situation in Ukraine a crisis, and the Russian general quickly “corrected and reversed” them. The Russian general did not deviate in discussions from Russia’s win-at-all-costs strategy of invading Ukraine, according to the reading. In this case, the two Americans believe they witnessed a Russian general who was “clearly distressed by the situation but had nowhere to project his anger except to do so in line with the Kremlin’s state-sponsored narrative,” according to the record. . The record notes that the Americans do not rule out that the meeting may have underscored Russia’s hardening stance on the war and the need for Russian military officers to carry out their orders because they have no other choice. A senior defense official said last week that the United States has “picked up anecdotal indications that morale is not high” in some of the Russian forces’ military units. “We certainly have indications that morale is a growing problem within the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. “As time goes on, and they continue to not make the progress they want to make, we’ve seen more and more indications that unit morale and cohesion is an issue.” CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.