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CIA Director William Burns recently traveled to Ukraine where he met with intelligence counterparts and President Volodymyr Zelensky, a US official confirmed.
The then-unreported trip comes as Kiev's brigades pursue a counteroffensive in the east and south of their country against Russian forces, launched earlier this month after weeks of anticipation.
During his trip, Burns reaffirmed "the US commitment to share intelligence to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression," the US official said.
According to The Washington Post, which first reported the visit, Ukrainian officials shared plans to withdraw territory occupied by Russia and begin ceasefire negotiations by the end of the year.
Burns "traveled to Ukraine as he has done regularly since the start of Russia's latest aggression more than a year ago," the US official announced. The Post reported that the visit took place in June.
The trip took place before the 24-hour uprising by the leader of the private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to the official. The rebellion, which was widely seen as the biggest threat to the Kremlin's authority in decades, "was not a topic of discussion," the official added.
The United States has tried to make clear to Russia that it played no role in the rebellion, with mainstream US media reporting on Friday that Burns called the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, after the uprising to asserted that the United States was not involved in the incident.
Ukraine's military commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, has said his country's counteroffensive plans are being hampered by a lack of adequate firepower, from modern fighter jets to artillery munitions.
On Tuesday, the United States announced a new $500 million weapons package to bolster the counterattack, including armored vehicles, precision munitions and mine-clearing equipment.
Ahead of the fall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his men are beginning to think about how Kiev can press for an end to the fighting on terms acceptable to Russia and the Ukrainian population. Kiev's preferred ideal scenario is for its troops to advance on the Crimean border, taking the peninsula hostage. Without recapturing Crimea by force, Kiev would ask Russia to accept security guarantees that Ukraine can provide from the West.
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