U.S. CIA chief Williams Burns visited Ukraine in early October on an unannounced trip to meet with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski, CNN has reported.
«While (CIA chief Williams Burns) was there, 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 has told U.S. broadcaster CNN without providing further details about the trip.
Burns’ trip has come at a time when Washington is «increasingly concerned» that Moscow will resort to the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
U.S. intelligence has said publicly that they have no evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing his troops to take this step in the conflict, however, officials consulted by the cited network indicate that the risk is «perhaps the highest since Russia» started the war in February.
Prior to this trip, the CIA director visited Ukraine in January of this year, also without announcing the visit, a month before the beginning of the invasion by Russian troops. At that time, Burns met with Ukrainian authorities to discuss the Russian military escalation that pointed to the start of the war.
