CIA head John Ratcliffe makes surprise trip to Russia

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow on August 25. According to US President Donald Trump, the visit was "semi-routine" business. The Kremlin said Ratcliffe came for "contacts between intelligence services" and did not meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Putin was briefed on the details of the meetings.

Ukraine was asked to suspend its attacks against Russia while Ratcliffe was in Moscow, according to a source familiar with the matter, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. The US side had promised to brief Ukrainian officials after the trip, but they have yet to receive information about the contents or outcome of Ratcliffe's meetings.

Trump denied reports that Ratcliffe had been sent to Russia because Putin planned to "test the resolve" of NATO. He said that something "may come out of" the CIA director's visit to Russia and expressed hope that the war in Ukraine would end, stating that both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky want to see it ended.

Brief written by urgent.news from CBS News, Meduza (English), Kyiv Independent, The Hill — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.