U.S. asked Ukraine to limit Russia strikes as CIA chief visits Moscow

Filed 53m ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Diplomatic Security Service from Washington, D.C., United St · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The United States asked Ukraine to hold off striking Moscow, St. Petersburg and northern Russian regions during a three-day window last week, coinciding with CIA Director John Ratcliffe's undisclosed visit to Moscow, according to Axios and reporting cited by FT's Christopher Miller. Ukraine reportedly agreed, and flight tracking shows Ratcliffe's plane routed through Riga before a U.S. Air Force C-17 landed in the Russian capital.

The trip echoes a January flight that carried envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to meet Vladimir Putin, marking one of the few direct U.S.-to-Russia flights since the war began. Neither the purpose of Ratcliffe's meetings nor which Russian officials he saw has been disclosed.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

An unexplained CIA visit to Moscow, secured by asking a wartime ally to stand down its own strikes, is the kind of arrangement that gets called 'quiet diplomacy' right up until someone asks who benefits. Ukraine apparently complied without public objection, which tells you plenty about the balance of leverage in this particular alliance.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Amazing Plan · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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