US Asked Ukraine to Limit Strikes During Official’s Moscow Trip

The United States asked Ukraine last week not to launch air strikes around Moscow, St. Petersburg and some northern parts of Russia on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because a plane carrying a senior US official would be flying to the Russian capital, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Financial Times first reported the request.

US media outlets said on Tuesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had traveled to Moscow for meetings with Russian officials. Reuters could not independently confirm that the request to Ukraine was specifically connected to Ratcliffe’s trip, and the CIA declined to comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied Ratcliffe’s visit. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to meet the CIA director.

If confirmed, the trip would be the first known visit to Moscow by a US intelligence chief since Ratcliffe’s predecessor, William Burns, held talks with Putin in November 2021, roughly three months before Russia invaded Ukraine.

(Reuters, lud)