CIA Chief Told Kremlin Russia’s War Is Going Badly – and Putin May Not Know It, NYT Says

CIA Director John Ratcliffe used a secretive trip to Moscow this week to deliver a bleak assessment of Russia’s war against Ukraine, warning that Moscow’s military and economic position would deteriorate further if the Kremlin refused to pursue serious peace negotiations, The New York Times reported Thursday. Ratcliffe delivered the warning directly to Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), according to current and former US officials cited by the newspaper.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The unusual intelligence mission sought to deliver the assessment through a channel that could carry particular weight with Russian President Vladimir Putin. CIA analysts have long questioned whether Putin’s advisers are giving him an honest picture of the war’s trajectory and the scale of Russia’s battlefield losses. US officials reportedly hoped Putin, himself a former Soviet intelligence officer, would take a message from the CIA director more seriously than one delivered through traditional diplomatic channels. Stalled advances and massive losses Ratcliffe’s assessment emphasized the enormous price Russia has paid for limited territorial gains in Ukraine. The warning echoed public comments by the CIA director last month, when he said the life expectancy of a Russian soldier on the front line was “less than 35 minutes” and that Moscow had captured only about 1% of Ukraine’s total territory during the previous 18 months. Other Topics of Interest Zelensky Receives Moldova’s Highest State Award as Regional Cooperation Deepens Moldovan President Maia Sandu awarded Zelensky the Order of the Republic whilst in Kyiv, as Ukraine marked its 35th Independence Day. Ratcliffe attributed Russia’s meager advances to Ukraine’s “mastery” of drone technology. The assessment marks a striking shift from assumptions held by President Donald Trump and some of his senior advisers last year that Russia’s larger population and nuclear arsenal made an eventual battlefield victory over Ukraine inevitable. Instead, Russian forces have suffered massive losses while their battlefield gains have largely stalled. Ratcliffe reportedly told Bortnikov that, given Russia’s increasingly bleak military and economic outlook, Moscow should enter serious negotiations to end the war before its position worsens further. Kremlin confirms secret talks The Kremlin confirmed that Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow on Tuesday and held talks with senior Russian intelligence officials but did not meet Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been briefed on the outcome of the meetings but declined to disclose what was discussed. Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin also confirmed that he met Ratcliffe during the visit, describing the talks as a working-level meeting. Trump has publicly played down the unusual intelligence mission, calling Ratcliffe’s trip “semi-routine” while suggesting that direct intelligence contacts could contribute to efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. The visit was the first known trip to Moscow by a CIA director since November 2021, when then-CIA chief William Burns traveled to Russia months before Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.