Zelenskyy says US has given information to Ukraine about recent meetings in Moscow

During an evening video address late Friday, Zelenskyy said the information Kyiv received concerned meetings that took place in Moscow “the other day,” noting there was a “series” of them and that Ukraine spoke with the US before and after these meetings.

“Thank you for the information – and for the necessary tone of the conversation with Russia. We value the alignment of steps and the fact that America is advancing a realistic vision of what needs to be done and what must be achieved,” Zelenskyy noted.

“Russia must end its war, and all the necessary conditions must be created to make that happen,” he added, without specifying who took part in the meetings in the Russian capital.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin confirmed reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow on Tuesday, the first visit by a CIA chief since 2021, saying it involved contacts between security services and describing such contacts as a "positive phenomenon, a positive process."

The reports emerged after a US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III flew from the Latvian capital of Riga to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on Tuesday morning, according to Flightradar24. The aircraft had arrived two days earlier from Camp Springs in the US, near Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where White House aircraft are often based.

The aircraft departed Moscow and returned to Riga later the same evening, according to Flightradar24 data.

Later on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump characterized Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow as "semi-routine."

A day later, when asked in the Oval Office whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed or committed not to attack NATO territory, Trump replied: “I had good talks with him. He’s not going to be attacking a NATO territory.”

Asked whether he wanted to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO territory, Trump said: “I don’t want to comment on that, but they’re not going to attack.”