William Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, met with his Russian counterpart in Turkiye on Monday to warn Russia against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a White House spokesman said. The National Security Council said Burns' meeting in Ankara was not in any way to negotiate or to discuss any settlement of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine was briefed in advance on the trip, the spokesman said.
President Biden has insisted that Ukraine, and not the US, will dictate if and when negotiations commence to end the war. But a disagreement has emerged at the highest levels of the US government over whether to press Ukraine to seek a diplomatic end to the war with Russia, with America's top general urging in closed-door meetings that Ukraine should negotiate to cement its recent gains. Burns was also set to raise the case of Americans detained in Russia, the National Security Council said.
Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, reported on Monday that the Russian delegation in Ankara was headed by Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the country's foreign intelligence service. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, would not confirm or deny whether a meeting took place. A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment. The agency never comments on the director's travel.
Russian and Ukrainian officials have made separate public comments in recent weeks about potential peace negotiations, over six months after their last known talks fell apart. But US officials have said they do not believe talks will begin soon and that both sides think continued fighting, for now, will strengthen their eventual negotiating positions.
American and European leaders see their goal for now as keeping the war contained to Ukraine and deterring President Vladimir Putin from using a nuclear weapon or another weapon of mass destruction. Putin has denied that Moscow was preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, but US officials say that senior Russian military leaders have recently discussed the possibility of using a tactical nuclear weapon in the country.
The Biden administration has been trying to negotiate a prisoner swap with Russia to bring home the basketball star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned on espionage charges. But with no reported breakthroughs - and tensions between the two countries over the war in Ukraine - a public pressure campaign has intensified.
Burns has been dispatched before to interact with Russian officials over Ukraine. Before Putin ordered the full-scale invasion in February, Burns flew to Moscow, in November 2021, to tell Russian officials the US knew of the Russian plans and would forcefully respond to any invasion. Burns spoke to Putin by video, who was in Sochi at the time. nyt
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