CIA chief urged Russia to seek Ukraine peace deal before its position worsens - NYT
CIA Director John Ratcliffe privately urged Russian officials to pursue serious negotiations to end the war against Ukraine before Russia's military and economic position deteriorates further, the New York Times reported, citing current and former officials.
During a secretive visit to Moscow this week, Ratcliffe delivered what the newspaper described as his "bleak assessment" of Russia's war to Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Ratcliffe argued that Russia's battlefield gains had stalled while its forces had suffered massive losses and told Bortnikov that Moscow should engage in serious negotiations to end the war.
He did not, however, threaten Russia with consequences if President Vladimir Putin rejected the message and continued the war. The NYT said it remains unclear whether Ratcliffe's mission signals any change in U.S. policy toward Russia or Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal separately reported that President Donald Trump personally sent Ratcliffe to Moscow. The mission was kept so closely held that some senior White House officials, trusted presidential advisers and military leaders who would normally have been briefed did not know about it in advance.
According to the WSJ, Ratcliffe also told Russian officials that despite Trump's push for peace, the United States was not abandoning its security commitments to Europe.
The CIA chief's meeting with Bortnikov was their first face-to-face meeting, although the two had previously worked through intelligence channels, including on a U.S.-Russian prisoner exchange.
Ratcliffe's channel with Bortnikov operates alongside separate contacts maintained by Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner with senior Kremlin officials, according to the NYT.