The CIA director, William Burns, traveled to Ukraine recently and met his intelligence counterparts and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a US official confirmed to Agence France-Presse on 1 July, according to The Guardian.
Burns reaffirmed “the US commitment to sharing intelligence to help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression” during his not previously reported visit, AFP cited the US official as saying. The trip occurred in June, according to the Wahington Post.
“Director Burns recently traveled to Ukraine, as he has done regularly since the beginning of Russia’s recent aggression more than a year ago,” a US official told the Washington Post.
According to WP’s three sources familiar with Ukrainian counteroffensive plans, Ukrainian military planners said Burns and others they were confident that Ukraine would “retake substantial territory by the fall; move artillery and missile systems near the boundary line of Russian-controlled Crimea; push further into eastern Ukraine; and then open negotiations with Moscow” for the first time since last year’s March.
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