According to a White House National Security Council official, CIA Director Bill Burns spoke with his Russian intelligence counterpart on Monday to warn of repercussions if Russia used a nuclear bomb in Ukraine.
Burns and Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR spy agency, did not discuss ending the war in Ukraine at their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to comment publicly.
Burns also intended to bring up the cases of Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan and Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, two Americans held in Russia who the Biden administration has been pushing for their release in a prisoner exchange, according to White House officials ahead of the meeting.
Before Russian President Vladimir Putin issued the February invasion order, the Burns-Naryshkin meeting was the highest-ranking formal face-to-face encounter between American and Russian representatives.
Before Burns’ trip to Turkey, the official claimed that Ukrainian officials received briefings.
President Joe Biden informed reporters that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Russia’s conflict in Ukraine after meeting on the fringes of the Group of 20 summits in Bali, Indonesia.
They “reaffirmed our common conviction that the prospect of using nuclear weapons is utterly unacceptable,” Biden continued.
The talks between Burns and Naryshkin “occurred,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state news outlet Tass, adding that “it was the American side’s initiative.”
JOIN US ON WHAT'SAPP, TO GET INSTANT STATUS UPDATES AND BE IN THE KNOW.
CLICK HERE
