The US spy chief made an unannounced visit to Ukraine earlier this month to reinforce the US commitment to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, including continued intelligence sharing, CNN reported citing an unnamed CIA official who offered no other details about the trip.
CIA Director William Burns reportedly met and held discussions with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and passed intelligence to the war-torn nation’s military, reiterating Washington’s commitments to back Kyiv for the long-haul.
Burns’ previously visited Kyiv at the beginning of the year, before the Russian invasion of the country in late February, to discuss the then-impending military action with officials in Kyiv.
His latest trip, however, comes in light of the increased concerns in the US amid growing claims by Western officials that Moscow could deploy a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine in its struggling war although Burns and other US officials have said publicly that they see no evidence of such action by Russia.
Emphasizing that he takes the risk of nuclear conflict very seriously, Burns himself has thrown cold water on these predictions in early October, telling CBS the imminent threat of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons remains low.
At the same time, high-level Russian officials – including Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu – have been accusing Ukraine of preparing a false-flag attack, claiming it wants to frame Moscow with the use of a ‘dirty bomb’ – a device combining conventional explosives with radioactive material – which Kyiv has categorically denied.
The ongoing intel-sharing relationship between the US and Ukraine has helped Kyiv’s troops make great gains on the battlefield, the head of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, claimed last month, adding that both American and British intelligence officers are working with the Ukrainians.
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