CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Russian intelligence officials in Moscow on Tuesday, a rare visit amid strained U.S.-Russia relations over the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin said the talks occurred without a meeting between Ratcliffe and President Vladimir Putin, who was informed of the contacts, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov. A U.S. military aircraft landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday and departed later that day. President Donald Trump described the visit as “sort of semi‑routine” during a radio interview. A senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press that Washington asked Kyiv to suspend strikes in Moscow, St. Petersburg and some northern regions while the delegation was in Russia, though strikes continued elsewhere. CBS News first reported the visit. Peskov said intelligence‑agency contacts are a positive development but that overall U.S.-Russia relations remain in a profound crisis, and he said it was too early to determine any impact on the broader relationship. Analyst Andrei Soldatov noted that such meetings typically occur only when there is pressing national‑security relevance and American interest. Previous contacts included a 2021 meeting between Nikolai Patrushev and CIA Director William Burns in Moscow and a 2022 meeting between Burns and Russia’s foreign intelligence chief in Turkey. Relations deteriorated after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine but have warmed since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, during which he has sought a swift end to the Ukraine war. Negotiations for a peace settlement have stalled, and both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified long‑range attacks. Russia has offered to mediate in the U.S.-Israel conflict over Iran, a partnership complicated by Moscow’s strategic ties with Iran and its complex relationship with Israel. Russian officials have said they have not provided military assistance to Iran, and analysts suggest the Moscow visit may aim to address protection of U.S. assets in the Middle East.