The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, secretly visited Ukraine in early June, where he was shown Kyiv's ambitious plan to liberate Russian-occupied territories and start ceasefire talks with Moscow.
The Washington Post reported this, citing its own sources among officials of the United States and
The interlocutors of the publication said that Burns' trip included meetings with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials of Ukraine.
According to one of the WP interlocutors, the purpose of Burns' visit was to reaffirm the commitment of the U.S. presidential administration to the exchange of intelligence information designed to help Ukraine.
The publication notes that the Ukrainian leadership publicly expresses dissatisfaction with critics of the pace of the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which began in early June.
"But in private, military planners in Kyiv have relayed to Burns and others bullish confidence in their aim to retake substantial territory by the fall; move artillery and missile systems near the boundary line of Russian-controlled Crimea; push further into eastern Ukraine; and then open negotiations with Moscow for the first time since peace talks broke down in March of last year, according to three people familiar with the planning,” the publication reports.
The WP interlocutor from Ukraine emphasized that the Russians will go to negotiations only if they feel threatened.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on Friday, June 30, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar said that the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces of Ukraine is on track.
Recall that earlier the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, expressed dissatisfaction with those who speak out about the "slow" pace of the counteroffensive.
And the day before, during a conversation with the Spanish media, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine intends to show the results of the counteroffensive to the NATO summit in Vilnius.
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