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By Anna Peverieri
Aug 28 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that the United States had given Kyiv information about a number of meetings in Moscow over the last few days.
“Today we received information from the American side about the meetings in Moscow that took place these days. There were a number of meetings there,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram, without going into detail on who was at the meetings.
“I thank them for the information and for the necessary tone of the conversation with Russia,” Zelenskiy added, again without elaborating.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had travelled to Moscow to warn Russia off any attack on a NATO member.
The Kremlin dismissed the report, while U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attack a NATO country, playing down media reports on Ratcliffe’s trip.
Two sources told Reuters that Ratcliffe had raised the possibility of a Russian operation against a NATO member during the meeting, although it was unclear whether that was the primary purpose of the trip. The talks also covered Russia’s support for Iran, one source told Reuters.
Also Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday that Warsaw was in constant contact with the CIA leadership and was not surprised by Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow.
“We are not taken by surprise by any information regarding the operations and initiatives the CIA Director is conducting,” Tusk told a youth conference when asked if the visit should be a source of concern.
“Poland was also informed about the need for an urgent discussion on this matter at the highest possible Polish-American level,” Tusk added without elaborating.
He said that there have been signals in the public domain that Russia is preparing to escalate tensions, both in the war with Ukraine and across the region, and that this autumn and winter are set to be pivotal for Russia.
(Reporting by Anna Peverieri in Barcelona and Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alistair Bell)
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