CIA director visits Kiev amid Russian missile strikes in Ukraine

CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Ukraine’s capital Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his intelligence colleagues on Tuesday, according to a US official. Burns, the official said, was safely at the US Embassy when Russian missile strikes hit across the country, including explosions that rocked the capital.

The CIA director’s trip to Kiev followed a meeting on Monday in Ankara, Turkey, with Russian intelligence official Sergey Naryshkin. This is the second time in less than a month that he has visited Kiev.

While in the Ukrainian capital, the official said, Burns “discussed the US warning he delivered to the head of the Russian intelligence service not to use nuclear weapons and reinforced the US commitment to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. ”.

The flurry of indirect communications comes less than a week after Russia announced the withdrawal from a major Ukrainian city and a quiet debate began in Washington over whether or not to encourage Ukraine to seek a diplomatic resolution to the war. It also comes as the US grows increasingly concerned that Russia will resort to a nuclear weapon in its attack.

Burns and other US officials have said publicly that they see no evidence that Moscow is actively preparing to take that step, but officials familiar with the intelligence warn that the risk is perhaps the greatest since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

President Joe Biden has leaned heavily on Burns, a seasoned diplomat with deep experience in Russia, as a silent messenger in the ongoing conflict. Burns was sent to Ankara on Monday to “communicate with Russia on risk management, especially nuclear risk and strategic stability risks,” a national security spokesman said. The spokesperson emphasized that he had not conducted negotiations of any kind.

In Kiev in October, he “reinforced the U.S. commitment to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, including continued intelligence sharing,” a U.S. official told CNN at the time.

Burns was sent to Moscow last November, before Russia invaded Ukraine, to warn the Kremlin of the consequences of an invasion. He was also involved in discussions with Naryshkin about US citizens detained in Russia, including Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.