C.I.A. CHIEF IN KYIV AFTER WARNING MOSCOW OVER NUCLEAR USE

WASHINGTON: CIA director William Burns met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top intelligence officials to brief them on his warning to Moscow against using nuclear weapons, a US official said.

Burns travelled to Kyiv on Tuesday, one day after holding talks in Ankara with Russia’s spy chief Sergei Naryshkin on the war and Moscow’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons to defend its interests.

That was the highest level face-to-face meeting of US and Russian officials since the beginning of the war, and Burns delivered a firm warning to Naryshkin “on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability,” according to a White House statement on Monday.

Then Burns travelled to Ukraine to inform Zelensky and his Ukraine counterparts on the talks with Naryshkin, and to reiterate US support for Kyiv’s war effort, the official told AFP on the basis of anonymity.

Burns was in Kyiv on a day when Russian forces launched a barrage of missiles striking targets across Ukraine.