CIA head meets Ukrainian president

CIA Director William J. Burns met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday, reaffirming US support for the country on the same day Russian missiles pummeled the capital and sent residents fleeing for cover, reported from The Washington Post.

The visit came at a moment of Ukrainian triumph, days after its forces liberated the city of Kherson and Zelenskyy declared a turning point in the war. But it was a moment of extraordinary tension and uncertainty, as well, as a Russian-made missile appeared to land in Poland, raising the question of how the NATO alliance might respond to a possible attack on a member state.

Burns, whom President Biden often has dispatched to speak with Russian and Ukrainian leaders, also met with his Ukrainian intelligence counterparts and discussed a US warning he had delivered on Monday to the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service "not to use nuclear weapons” in its war on Ukraine, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive discussions.

Burns had met with the Russian official, SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin, in Ankara.

In Kyiv, Burns "reinforced the US commitment to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression,” the official said. The director was safely inside the US Embassy during the missile strikes, the official noted.

There was no indication the Russian attacks were meant to coincide with Burns’s visit. Russian media disclosed his visit to Ankara, in what has become a routine practice of publicizing Russian officials’ meetings with the CIA director, who customarily keeps his travel schedule private.

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