CIA chief warned Russia to cut a deal with Ukraine as its battlefield position deteriorates, officials reveal

CIA director John Ratcliffe made a secret trip to Moscow on Tuesday to inform FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov that Russia should enter serious negotiations with Ukraine, laying out evidence of the heavy price Moscow has paid for relatively modest territorial gains. During the brief meeting — the first by a CIA director in Moscow since 2021 — Ratcliffe also raised the prospect of a Russian operation against a NATO member and Moscow's ongoing backing of Iran. Trump maintained that Putin "is not going to attack a NATO territory" and denied that Ratcliffe had carried any specific message, describing the visit as routine. Western officials separately cautioned that Putin's appetite for hybrid operations inside Britain — sabotage, cyber-attacks, assassination — is "very clear", even as they played down the prospect of direct military confrontation.

Russia's former foreign minister warned British drone factories could be hit by "unknown sources" after the UK gave Ukraine blueprints for long-range Scalp missiles.

Western officials said Moscow's threats are "nothing new" — part of long-standing Russian doctrine using "hostile rhetoric to exploit fears" rather than signalling imminent attack.

Officials warned the real danger is miscalculation: Russia's hybrid campaign of sabotage and cyber-attacks risks accidentally triggering the direct conflict Putin is said to want to avoid.