US President Donald Trump personally dispatched Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow for talks, informed sources told The Wall Street Journal.

According to them, Trump had kept trusted aides and military leaders who normally would have been briefed on the trip in the dark about the message Ratcliffe would deliver to senior Kremlin figures.

And the New York Times (NYT) interlocutors familiar with the visit said that the CIA director met in Moscow with the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, Alexander Bortnikov. Ratcliffe gave a gloomy assessment of the situation on the front line in Ukraine and called for an agreement to end the war before Russia's military and economic situation worsens.

Before the meeting with the head of the FSB, Ratcliffe, according to NYT sources, held talks with the Ukrainian side and assured that he would study Moscow's position, rather than make concessions.