Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe.
Modern.az reports that, according to two informed sources who spoke to "Reuters", the meeting took place on September 21 at Shannon Airport in Ireland, where planes stopped for refueling.
The sources did not disclose what issues were discussed during the meeting.
After the meeting, Zelensky traveled to New York. His meeting with US President Donald Trump was scheduled for September 22.
Meeting after Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow
John Ratcliffe's meeting with Zelensky took place less than a month after his visit to Moscow.
According to "Wall Street Journal", it was Donald Trump who sent Ratcliffe to Moscow. The CIA chief held talks in the Russian capital with Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and Sergey Naryshkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
Sources of "The New York Times" stated that Ratcliffe gave a "negative" assessment of the front-line situation in Ukraine and called for an agreement to stop the war before Russia's military and economic situation further deteriorated.
According to informed sources of "The Washington Post", the CIA director's visit to Russia was assessed as "an attempt to convince Putin to stop the war", but Vladimir Putin perceived it as weakness.
After this, US President's special representative Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner made visits to Moscow and Kyiv.
However, according to "Financial Times" sources, new diplomatic visits by US administration representatives did not result in significant progress in the peace process.
The publication's sources stated that Vladimir Putin still demands Kyiv to abandon Donbas and is ready to end the war only on his own terms. Zelensky, however, refuses to accept this demand.
Trump's call regarding strikes on oil refineries
Against this backdrop, Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Zelensky to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries.
The US president stated that these attacks lead to an increase in the price of diesel fuel on the world market.
Zelensky, in turn, announced that Kyiv is ready for de-escalation. According to him, Ukraine's refusal to strike Russian oil refineries should be accompanied by Moscow stopping attacks on Ukraine's energy system and critical infrastructure.
