President Joe Biden did not authorize secret meetings held between former U.S. national security officials and prominent Russians over possible talks to end the war in Ukraine, the White House and State Department said Thursday. NBC News reported that the Americans, which included former Pentagon officials, had met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russians believed to have ties to the Kremlin, and at least one of the U.S. figures had traveled to Russia. “The Biden administration did not sanction those discussions,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters. “And as we’ve said repeatedly, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” they added, referring to a policy of not discussing potential negotiations to end the war without Ukrainian officials being involved. John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, also told CBS News the White House hadn’t been aware of the unofficial talks and said: “I want to make it clear that these discussions were not encouraged or engendered by us and we were not supporting them in any active way.”