NYT: The CIA head Ratcliffe flew to Moscow to deliver his “bleak” assessment of Russiaʼs position in the war against Ukraine

During a trip to Moscow this week, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) head John Ratcliffe gave the head of Russiaʼs FSB dismal data about Russiaʼs real situation in the war against Ukraine and called for a peace deal before it gets worse.

This is reported by The New York Times, citing current and former US officials.

According to the publicationʼs interlocutors, at a meeting with FSB head Alexander Bortnikov, Ratcliffe did not threaten Russia with possible consequences if Putin refused to negotiate and decided to continue the war.

Instead, the CIA head conveyed to Bortnikov his "bleak" assessment of the situation on the front and the state of the Russian economy. By this, he wanted to urge the Russian Federation to conclude a peace agreement before the situation worsened.

The publication notes that CIA has long doubted whether Putin is receiving truthful information from his advisors about the course of the war and Russiaʼs losses.

Ratcliffe stressed that the Russian army had suffered significant losses and its advance on the battlefield had effectively ground to a halt. According to him, in the 18 months since he began his work as CIA head, Russia had captured only about 1% of Ukraineʼs territory. He attributed this result, in part, to Ukraineʼs "skillful" use of drones.

The media adds that CIA analysts have long maintained channels of communication with the Russian FSB and FIS. This contact occurs in parallel with the channels of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner with Putinʼs advisors.

At the same time, before traveling to Moscow, according to media reports, the CIA head spoke with Ukrainian colleagues and assured them that he was going to study Russiaʼs position, not to make concessions on behalf of Ukraine.

Some American officials believe that a message from the CIA head could carry more weight with the Kremlin than conventional diplomatic signals. The Ukrainian side also sees Ratcliffe as a potentially more neutral mediator than Witkoff and Kushner.

• Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow on August 25 via Riga on an unannounced visit. The media wrote that at that time the US had asked Ukraine to suspend strikes on Russia. The Kremlin gave the reason for the CIA directorʼs secret visit to Moscow as follows: to establish contacts between the intelligence services.
• The last time the CIA chief visited Moscow was in 2021, when Bill Burns warned Putin about the consequences of an attack on Ukraine. Three months later, Russia launched a full-scale war.

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