Ukraine suspended strikes on Moscow and other Russian cities at Washington's request while CIA director John Ratcliffe made a secret visit to the Russian capital. Washington contacted Kyiv last week and asked it not to strike Moscow, St Petersburg and a swathe of northern Russia while a plane carrying the senior US intelligence official was flying into and out of the capital. The request covered Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and was made to protect Ratcliffe and the US delegation during the highly unusual visit.
Ukraine complies with US request
Ukraine complied, before resuming strikes early on Wednesday following Ratcliffe's departure. Russia later claimed its forces had shot down at least 426 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ratcliffe travelled to Moscow on Tuesday for unannounced meetings with Russian officials, marking the first known visit to Russia by a serving CIA director in almost five years.
Neither the White House nor the Kremlin disclosed the purpose of the trip, who Ratcliffe met or what was discussed. Flight-tracking data showed a US military C-17 transport aircraft travelling from the US to Latvia before continuing to Moscow. The aircraft left Riga airport at 5.50 am and appeared to land at Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport at around 7.04 am. It returned to the Latvian capital shortly before 5 pm.
Details of the secret mission
Video posted on social media appeared to show the C-17 approaching Vnukovo, while separate footage purported to show a diplomatic motorcade travelling through Moscow. The CIA, White House and Pentagon did not immediately give details of Ratcliffe's mission. The trip is believed to have been his first to Russia since becoming CIA director and was one of the highest-level visits by an American official during Donald Trump's second term. Ratcliffe has, however, maintained contact with senior Russian intelligence officials.
Former British military attaché to Moscow John Foreman suggested the trip could be linked to efforts to manage the risk of a wider confrontation between Russia and the West. He said: "The Americans don't normally send such a high-ranking official to Moscow unannounced at short notice unless something is up."
Possible negotiations over detainees
There was also speculation that Ratcliffe's visit could have involved negotiations over Americans being detained in Russia. The CIA director previously played a role in talks which secured the release of Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina after she spent more than a year imprisoned in Russia, accused of providing support to Ukraine. The agency was also involved in the major 2024 prisoner exchange, which secured the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Ratcliffe's journey came against the backdrop of deeply strained relations between Washington and Moscow following Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has since faced sweeping Western sanctions and widespread diplomatic isolation, although the Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to reopen negotiations with Moscow.
Context of strained relations
Trump met Putin during a summit in Alaska last year in an attempt to push forward efforts to end the war. The talks failed to produce a breakthrough, however, and subsequent US-led negotiations involving Russia and Ukraine have largely stalled. Ratcliffe's Moscow visit represented a rare direct channel between two governments whose relations have remained hostile despite Trump's attempts to negotiate with Putin.
The last known visit to Moscow by a serving CIA director was made by Ratcliffe's predecessor, William Burns, in November 2021, just months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Burns travelled to the Russian capital as the Biden administration sought to warn Putin against launching an attack on Ukraine. The latest visit came as Kyiv continues to use increasingly sophisticated long-range drones to strike military sites, oil facilities and other targets deep inside Russian territory.
